Should Schools Improve Cyber Security?

By Katherine Hafner

Stanford University is the latest victim of a series of cyber attacks on national higher education institutions in recent months.

The university sent an email to members of its community on Thursday, urging them to change their passwords in light of a security breach.

“Stanford is investigating an apparent breach of its information technology infrastructure similar to incidents reported in recent months by a range of companies and large organizations in the United States,” the email stated. “We do not yet know the scope of the intrusion, but we are working closely with information security consultants and law enforcement to determine its source and impact.”

Stanford officials also said in the email there was no indication of any Social Security numbers, financial information or health information being compromised.

However, this is the second time within three months that Stanford has been targeted.

In May, a hacker broke into the system and gained names, email addresses, photos and some other information on current students that was then posted publicly, according to ABC 7 News.

The fact that the system has been broken into twice within such a short time span “may be indicative of a serious vulnerability,” wrote ABC’s David Louie.

This vulnerability extends to Stanford University Medical Center.

Jay Chaudhry, CEO and chairman of Zscaler, an Internet security firm in San Jose, told ABC News that hackers who reach medical records or machines for patients at the medical center could mess up configuration settings and possibly endanger patient lives.

Stanford officials indicated that the recent incident falls into a growing pattern of national breaches, primarily at research universities.

"In recent months, a range of large organizations have reported attacks involving their information systems," university officials said in the email. "Preliminary indications are that the breach at Stanford bears many similarities to these incidents."    

The hacks nationwide are widely thought to be coming from China, targeted at research universities for their wealth of knowledge on things like new medical procedures and technological advancements.

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among some other recent targets.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that there are millions of hacking attempts at large universities weekly.

Officials have estimated the cost for Stanford to protect and boost its cyber security system after the breach at several million dollars.

For now, the university asks its students and faculty to take basic security measures, like changing their passwords and not using the same password across a variety of systems.

Tell us in the comments section below:

• How safe do you feel with your personal Internet security?

• How do you think universities can improve their cyber security systems– are they worth investing in?