Colleges give themselves C+ for network security

Colleges give themselves modest marks in network security and fear malware the most among a long list of potential threats, according to a survey of university technology executives.

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Most (84%) of higher-education IT professionals queried say their networks are more secure today than five years ago but overall those who answered still score the security of their networks an average of 3.7 out of 5 - roughly a C+.

Based on results of the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education (ACUTA) survey, the 68 respondents see mobile devices as the most vulnerable points in their networks, but say that viruses and other malware actually pose a greater danger. Internal controls are also a weak point, as are defenses against potentially dangerous downloads and student hackers.

Asked to rank the danger of security threats on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being most severe, the IT professionals say viruses and other malware top the list with an average score of 5.8. The members polled at the ACUTA national conference in April said the threat of least concern was Web intrusions, with a score of 4.58.

The most common way they fight network security shortcomings is educating students and staff, with 58% claiming that in their security arsenal. Tightening internal controls and upgrading systems ranked next with 44%. Coming in fourth with 21% was improving anti-threat software.

Within the past five years 47% of the colleges say they suffered significant security breaches, with 71% of those classifying the damage as a minor exposure of confidential information. The breaches resulted in damage to infrastructure in 13% of these cases and in major confidential information exposure in 10%.

Of the colleges polled, 59% had more than 10,000 students and 97% were in the United States. The rest were in Canada.