OIT To Assume Charge Of Systems Security At UT

The computer network of the University of Tennessee is daily bombarded by countless cyber-terrorists, stated Brice Bible, the chief information officer at the Office of Information Technology.

University of Tennessee functionaries apprized staff and other people associated with UT that cyber-terrorists had infiltrated a UT computer comprising a database that carried confidential data on them.

According to Bible, these cyber-terrorists sometimes arrive from world over and endeavor to hack into the university's computer network and occasionally they are successful.

"Customarily it is not harmful," he said. "The moment they penetrate, we detect it, halt it (and) close it".

Security has drawn loads of interest in the past few years since computer systems in the academic world keep on getting quicker and have greater processing capacity. It's turned into an important subject since the net has become extremely swift and universities have equally swift links to the net.

Nowadays, skilled cyber-terrorists are authoring very forceful hacking devices easily transferable from the net. The cyber-terrorist needn't have to be a specialist or know everything about the victim's weaknesses, all they have to do is to aim the device at the victim and press the "Attack" knob.

OIT has adopted numerous security precautions in the last couple of years in a bid to assure the security of the computer systems and database within the university. One more motive for improved security precautions is because professionals worldwide have become more hi-tech in trailing the moves of cyber-terrorists. Robert Ridenour, the Head of the Information Security Office, asserted they were attempting to be practical and search novel modes of safeguarding data on the net.

Security tools, like firewalls and patches, have been bought specifically with this motive. The agency has also spent in invasion interception systems that can identify if anything unusual is happening and cease it instantly.

Although OIT has undertaken measures to ensure greater security to the network, it is the joint responsibility of scholar, teachers and employees at the university to safeguard their computers.

» SPAMfighter News - 11/21/2006