Educause study highlights IT security in higher education

Black Issues in Higher Education, Nov 20, 2003 by Ronald Roach

DENVER

The Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR) has released a major research study on information technology security. The study examines how higher education is dealing with the growing cost of IT security and the tension of preserving confidentiality, ensuring data integrity and maintaining an academic environment in which information is easily available to authorized users.

The study, "Information Technology Security: Governance, Strategy and Practice in Higher Education," authored by Robert B. Kvavik and John Voloudakis, with Judith B. Caruso, Richard N. Katz, Paula King and Judith A. Pirani, is based on the results of a survey of 435 higher education institutions as well as interviews with 42 technology executives, managers and faculty members at 18 institutions. It also peers closely at strategies that try to sustain a culture of open access while implementing enhanced security environments with technical, social, legal and risk-management implications.

The study examines the measures that colleges and universities have taken to secure their networks, computers and information resources, as well as their management practices, policies and plans for the future. In addition, the study identifies and compares leading IT security practices within higher education, industry and government, and provides an assessment of higher education's capacities to protect against the growing number of threats facing it.

Companion publications to this ECAR study include case studies on incident management and IT security at Georgia Tech, Indiana University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Montana, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Washington.

Educause, headquartered in Denver and Washington, D.C., is the nation's leading association for IT professionals in American higher education.

A summary of the key findings from this research is available in PDF format [298 KB] at <www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ecar_so/ers/ERS0305/ EKF0305.pdf>.