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Study Reveals Vulnerable College Students

A survey conducted by CDW Government, Inc. and Eduventures has showed that over 3 million students could be at risk of losing personal data on the Web. More than half of the higher education IT directors reported at least one security occasion that happened during last year, as IT security is still a chief concern in colleges.

The director of higher education for CDW-G Julie Smith has stated: "The higher education institutions have always placed a high value on protecting the safety of their students. Today, that extends into protecting personal and institutional data, as well as a growing number of networked devices, from increasingly sophisticated security threats". Almost half of the surveyed said IT security was one of the highest priorities, however IT managers mentioned lack of finances and resources as the main obstacles to the improvement of the campus IT security.

The survey also showed that only 11 percent of the surveyed believe their networks are safe from attack, while the rest were very concerned about the personal information that is stored on their computers. According to CDW-G, colleges also should make many improvements in their policies regarding authorization and access, in order to decrease external threats. Also they should invest in access control technologies.