Kroll Fraud Solutions Blog – A Dialogue on Data Security

Do universities face more data security challenges than businesses? That question came to me after reading the thought-provoking article “When it comes to avoiding data breaches, universities can learn from the enterprise” at SC Magazine.

Universities have numerous significant data security issues to address – open network, steady churn and influx of users (both students and faculty), a large amount of proprietary data, and ability to control the use of new mobile devices on the network, to name a few. Ultimately, universities have to achieve a balance between network access and data security, and maintaining an open exchange of ideas and information. These are challenges that most enterprise businesses usually do not have to worry about.

University parking and transportation offices — are recent breaches an indicator of an overlooked aspect of security, or just a fluke?

Recently, at the University of Hawaii, unauthorized access to a computer server used by the school’s parking office was discovered during a routine audit. The database contained records for the parking office from 1998 to 2009, including 41,000 SSNs and 200 credit card numbers.