A rise in identity theft is presenting employers with a major headache. They are being held liable for identity theft that occurs in the workplace.
Identity theft is the misuse or fraudulent use of an individual's personal information. Unfortunately for employers, personal data, such as Social Security and bank account numbers, is precisely what is contained in HR personnel files. These files can be goldmines for ID thieves.
University Business surveyed 160 chief information officers and IT directors from colleges and universities nationwide to find out how and where their IT dollars were being spent. (For UB's companion feature story see "Smart IT Spending Strategies," December 2005.)
Viruses and worms have attacked every college and university network. Predictably, almost all colleges and universities use some virus protection software, spam filtering and or firewalls to try to protect IT networks. Still, the attacks keep coming, as do the security breaches.
As colleges and universities have put into placE large-scale content management systems (CMS) in recent years to take care of indexing and serving up their vast amounts of files, they have been making use of commercial products new and old to create these systems. Many of them have gone that route despite the availability of open-source alternatives, opting for safety over open-source promises of freedom.
Student blogs that are sponsored by Admissions offices have quickly spread all over the country. If you haven't started a blog like this yet, you are probably looking at what other institutions are doing with great interest, envy, or fear-and definitely with some pressing questions.
Picture these scenarios:
At 1 a.m., a student heading back to her dorm after a late-night study group skips the shuttle, opting for a cross-campus walk, sans company, instead.
On his way back to campus after a party, a muscular athlete with a fear-nothing image gets a little spooked and thinks someone may be following him.
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Picture this: A fully loaded smart classroom featuring projectors, PDAs, and every type of technology in between.
