Report: Cybersecurity breaches common at universities

IU’s computer systems are protected by passwords and firewalls, but that doesn’t mean users are safe.\nThe Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an article advising that many of the millions of online security breaches reported nationally in the past three years occurred at colleges and universities.\nIU University Information Technology Services said that while security breaches can be a problem on campus, students can take steps to protect their privacy while working online. \n“I would say the issue I’d like students to pay the most attention to (in order) to prevent identity theft is to not share accounts and passwords with anyone else, not even family or intimate friends,” said Merri Beth Lavagnino, IU’s chief information policy officer. \nLavagnino said they see many cases where an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend breaks into their former love interest’s account and causes harm to his or her personal information. \n“We also like to caution students when using social networking sites,” Lavagnino said.\nLavagnino said that while the Chronicle does point out that higher education institutes have the highest reported number of public security breaches, corporate reports that involve hundreds of thousands of records actually constitute a higher portion of the total security breaches.