securing cyberspace

With the smell of "phishing" lingering in the air around campus, Fred Cate, IU law professor and director of IU's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, heads to Indianapolis to combat the problem that recently upset so many IU students -- cybersecurity.\nThe center, which researches computer and Internet security, in association with Purdue University and University of Notre Dame, will sponsor its second annual symposium on cybersecurity for colleges and universities today and Friday at the University Place Conference Center on the campus of IU Purdue University Indianapolis. "This gives us an opportunity to provide a sense of what works and what isn't working and how we can improve on it together," Cate said.\nIn its second year, the symposium has grown to three times its initial size with more than 200 registered participants representing 40 colleges and universities. Cate said hundreds of cybersecurity breaches occurred in the last three months, and a quarter of these were in universities.\n"Cybersecurity is important for everybody," Cate said, "but universities face additional challenges because we don't have traditional employees and have a lot of data stored such as grades, applications and financial information that makes it more challenging."\nMark Bruhn, IU chief information technology security and policy officer, said two issues pop up in cybersecurity discussions among universities. Discussion about the distribution of network devices is constant. In addition, three distinct communities -- students, faculty and staff -- work with the system, and each reacts differently. \nThe first day of the symposium focuses on high-level Internet security issues such as homeland security and features keynote speaker Amit Yoran, former director of the National Cybersecurity Division in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, discussing "Enterprise Risk Management in the Cyber World." According to an IU press release, Yoran is currently the CEO of Yoran Enterprises after stepping down as the cyber chief of President Bush's administration. The second day of the program will focus on more university-specific issues.\nCate said IU, a cybersecurity leader, will share tips on how it has improved its security in the past year. \nStill, every security issue is not as simple as running a virus scan, and Cate said he doesn't believe there will be an end for the need for symposiums such as today's anytime soon.\n"I'd love if the issue would go away," Cate said. "I'd love to be able to spend my time thinking about the great and wonderful things we can do with the Internet and not how to protect against harm. The Internet is wonderful, but it doesn't mean it's safe." \n-- Contact Senior Writer Kathleen \nQuilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.