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Ohio University Security Fails
Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
2006-06-23
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
Ohio University has an annual surplus to the tune of $1.4 million (on average), according to a report from Moran Technology Consulting. The company blames the school for not spending some of this on data security. To say OU has had security problems would be a gross understatement.
According to TMCnet, "outsiders lifted personal information from more than 367,000 files on students, faculty members and alumni, including 173,000 Social Security numbers." Money that could have gone towards "firewalls and other security resources" was instead spent on perks for Computer Network and Services workers; those perks "exceed those of other OU employees," said the report.
It also found that OU "made technology security a perpetually low priority investment." And the Computer Services department "did not firmly and loudly identify the major security exposures they saw." Another blow came with the statement that OU has "under-staffed and under-skilled teams trying to do too much work with too little resources."
R. Gregory Browning, chairman of the Board of Trustees at OU, said they will address the issue. "We're going to sit down and go through it piece by piece and fix it. It's a high priority. We will deal with it."
TMCnet reported that Tom Reid, the director of Computer and Network Services, and Todd Acheson, the Internet and systems manager, have both been suspended (with pay) and may be fired. Their job reviews up to this point were described as "glowing" and "good," respectively.
OU is going to need major damage control, both in terms of security and public relations, in order to clean up this mess.
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About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for SecurityProNews, InternetFinancialNews, SearchNewz, and WebProNews.
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