August 2004 — Features

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Minimizing Security Vulnerabilities in High-Tech Classrooms

By Betül C. Özkan and Vedat Günay, State University of West Georgia

Emerging technologies are quickly becoming part of our daily learning and teaching endeavors in academia. Since we have ubiquitous access to certain high-tech tools and must learn how to integrate these tools in educational settings, it has become almost unreasonable to go back and do things as they were 10 years ago. However, we also encounter problems and weaknesses in the same high-tech environment that uses and delivers information through computer networks. Issues range from maintaining secure networks in classrooms to having a better quality learning environment for students and faculty to use and share information systems.

Today, it is a common practice for most universities to use networked computers that enable users to communicate freely with each other. However, only a few students, faculty members and administrators are aware of the risks and vulnerabilities that exist in their network operating systems. Dr. E. Eugene Schultz, a principal engineer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and editor-in-chief of Computer & Security, reports that universities are "among the least secure places in the universe as far as computing g'es" (Foster 2004). This is because most colleges do not perform risk assessments of their network systems, and many administrators do not periodically review their policies as required by federal regulations. In addition, students often are not fully aware of the need to use anti-virus programs or how to properly use copyrighted materials, and faculty members frequently assume that computers in their offices are secure (Foster 2004). The following are some of the common threats that campuses face every cyber day, as well as solutions to minimize those threats.

Overview

Our campus has numerous high-tech classrooms that include desktop and laptop computers, electronic whiteboards, LCD projectors, scanners, printers, VCRs, and digitizers in a networked environment. Even though the computer configurations in these classrooms vary due to the differences in academic disciplinary needs, the bare bones of the computer systems and software are standardized in products such as Dell computers and Microsoft Office.

Virus Wars

Viruses interfere with instruction by causing temporary or permanent damage to computer systems. Last summer, just before the academic year started, a chain of new viruses and spam attacks made everybody reflect on this issue more seriously, especially when faculty realized that these viruses could have caused productivity loss by destroying entire computer systems and/or certain files on school computers. As cyber attacks spread and carry serious threats to our newfound technology-rich learning environment, we have to work harder than ever to keep our classrooms secure and instructionally efficient. As a faculty member utilizing a high-tech environment every day, one can wonder just how many of us are actually aware of the best ways to protect our classrooms.