Cybersecurity experts to share methods to keep higher education safe
Indianapolis , IND -- Now more than ever, colleges and universities must do more than fight the good fight to keep personal information and critical records protected against computer hackers. Cybersecurity personnel from these institutions must stay several steps ahead and work cooperatively to prevent would-be violators from gaining entry.
As a contribution to the improvement of cybersecurity in higher education, Indiana University 's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research (CACR) will host the Indiana Higher Education Cybersecurity Summit on Thursday, April 5 - Friday, April 6 at the University Place Conference Center on the IUPUI campus, 850 W. Michigan St . The summit, which is presented with support from Purdue University , University of Notre Dame, and Valparaiso University , will bring together information assurance and other IT professionals and faculty from Indiana 's universities and colleges and other public institutions to share best practices, research, and trends in cybersecurity.
This year's speakers include Kimberly Milford, information security advisor, University of Rochester; Virginia Rezmierski, assistant to the vice provost for information technology (retired), University of Michigan; and Ann West, program manager, Middleware and Security, Internet2, NMI-EDIT outreach lead, EDUCAUSE, and program manager, Computer Science, Michigan Tech.
Milford 's presentation, "Data Breaches in Higher Education: A Response Checklist," will offer guidelines to help institutions respond to data breaches. With the growing threat of security intrusions, institutions are under pressure to help the victims of such breaches deal with potential loss of personal identity information—while dealing with legal and public relations, issues and communicating with the media.
Rezmierski's presentation, "Computer Incidents-Mistakes and Malice Yield Good Management," will provide some real world wisdom on how institutions can prevent common mistakes that may lead to incidents, while West's presentation, "Roadmap for Authentication in Higher Education" will offer an overview of emerging authentication practices that may help tighten up access management. In addition, Dennis Trinkle, Vice President and CIO of Valparaiso University, will offer his observations of the pressing security issues facing leaders of higher education IT organizations, and discuss some of his strategies on how to handle such challenges.
"It is clear that sharing war stories, best practices, and trends in cybersecurity among campuses helps each institution to improve its own defenses and to minimize the impact of security events. This summit facilitates that sharing," said Mark S. Bruhn, IU associate vice president for Telecommunications, who also serves as associate director of the CACR. "Of course, that also means the collective higher education community is more secure, which in turn adds to the security of the national infrastructure."
Founded in 2002, the CACR, which is co-located at IU's Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses, works to enhance the security and integrity of information systems, technologies and content, while drawing on the university's wide range of scholarly and operational expertise in computer science, informatics, information systems, criminal justice, law, organizational behavior and public policy. Its major research initiatives focus on real-world problems such as "phishing," identity theft and terrorism, and its scholars and practitioners advise industry, government and academic leaders in their efforts to thwart computer hackers.
For a complete look at the Summit 's program or to register visit: http://cacr.iu.edu/summit/ .
