UW-Madison is stepping up its Internet protection by spreading awareness about system breakthroughs. Jim Lowe, chief internet technology security manager at the Division of Information Technology is spearheading the campaign.
Lowe's efforts in his first month include developing new technologies to make passwords more difficult to hack; spreading awareness of 'phishing,' or attempting to steal passwords by posing as an institution; maintaining DoIT's reliability as a provider of useful computing tools (like free anti-virus technology), and operating system patches.
\Identity management is clearly an overarching goal,"" Lowe said. ""We need to be coming up with tools and the techniques that will help people manage the issues for themselves, so they develop a feeling of trust in the network.""
Lowe fills a position DoIT recently created.
""We had a security officer within DoIT who left about almost a year ago, and after she left what we did was reevaluate the scope of that position with a campus-wide committee,"" said Brian Rust, communications manager at DoIT. ""It was decided mutually that this position should be elevated a bit and given more responsibility. Security issues were at the forefront for the last couple of years, and they're gaining in importance.""
Rust also cited Lowe's hiring as more of a preventative measure than a response, noting few past problems with the school network, which is up and running more than 99 percent of the time.
""I'm not aware that anyone has ever hacked the network,"" Rust said.
Notable network safety innovations include e-mail filters, which scan all incoming and outgoing mail for viruses and deletes them, and the Virtual Private Network. The VPN, which allows people or groups to set up smaller networks inside the main network, enables people to further protect the area where they use the network, Rust said.
Despite a prevention-centric approach, Rust said DoIT can also repair computers.
""You can bring your machine in if you have a virus, or if it has symptoms of having a virus on it and we'll clean it for you,"" he said.
Lowe hopes his ultimate security goals will foster confidence among UW-Madison computer users.
""If we can make the end product both easy to use and secure,"" he said, ""then people will start doing it naturally.""
