Comments on: WIU security breach

By: cbd

cbd — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 21:53:03 +0000

I’m sure universities have done worse. But many, if not most, are doing much better. I am much more comfortable with good than less bad.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:01:29 +0000

cbd,

I’ve seen Universities do worse. I remember back in 1995-97 when Harvard (money bags central) dealt with a similar issue. Harvard covered their problem up for a long time, until the situation was leaked to reporters. Yet, Harvard’s cracker problem got very little coverage, because money keeps good secrets. When the story broke, Harvard’s crack was only mentioned in a list of cracks that had happened throughout the year: three major banks and Microsoft’s Firewall (worthless security system).

By: cbd

cbd — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 13:45:06 +0000

Dean, I’ve been frustrated by that as well; CIT meeting minutes were once on the University web site, but have been moved or removed since I was on that committee. (Which was a joke, by the way.)

Thanks for reminding me about Siegel’s weblog.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 03:53:02 +0000

I didn’t find out about this until I got an email from the university TODAY - June 20!

The letter to the WIU community is pathetic. How long will it take them to notify “anyone who may potentially be affected?” Give me a break.

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 19:25:34 +0000

Technology at WIU has been a secretive society at WIU for years. I was doing some research for an independent resarch paper that I am writing and found that most, if not all, of the technology-related meeting minutes at WIU are not placed in the archives. The annual reports are missing as well. Information flow from technology departments to the university is very problematic.

Unfortunately, there are differences in management styles that keep WIU from moving forward with regard to technology. Some managers may want input from faculty and staff, while others would rather have 100% control regardless. This is likley due to technology managers who may have a wealth of technology-related know how, but lack enough knowledge and experiences to exist in a cooperative environment such as higher education.

To see the exact opposite, cruise on over to http://www.cio.uiuc.edu
Pete Siegel, CIO of UIUC, also keeps a blog about being a CIO of a university. http://petesiegel.blogspot.com/

By: cbd

cbd — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:16:13 +0000

I imagine it does. But (1) I know places where faculty are included much more than they are here; (2) the exclusion still stinks.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:38:00 +0000

That’s bad news. But doesn’t this culture exist, to some degree at least, at every university? I haven’t, sadly, contributed anything to the OS working group; but, even in my limited experience, I can see that IT-dept. inertia is vast, requiring a cataclysm to halt or reverse.