Think your school’s online data is secure? Don’t be too sure …
The City College of San Francisco recently discovered that its servers have been infected by computer viruses that have been in the school’s systems since 1999. The college first noticed the infection in November, when gaps in the data logs at a campus computer lab tipped the IT department off.
The college closed off the infected computer lab and took the server offline, but it may have been too little, too late: transmissions had already been sent to Russia, China and other countries. So far, there’s been one confirmed instance of personal banking information recorded by the virus.
And there are an additional 100,000 students and 3,000 employees whose personal info could be compromised.
In response, CCSF has taken multiple corrective actions, including:
- reconfiguring the campus firewalls
- changing and strengthening passwords on all servers
- preparing to install new security hardware
- establishing new procedures for the school to follow when it comes to using computers and network, and
- planning to isolate the network into three separate areas – administrative, academic and wireless.
Is your school prepared for a virus attack? Tell us in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
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