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Welcome: A Message from Timothy O'Rourke, Vice President of Computer and Information Services

February 10, 2005

A message to our students, faculty and staff about computer security:

As technology becomes an ever present part of our daily lives, everyone at Temple – students, faculty and staff – need to be aware of the growing security threat to our computers, networks, and cell phones. The importance of security was recently made clear in a Reuters article by Eric Auchard titled Phones, Car Engines Face Security Threats. Discussing a report from IBM Security Intelligence Services, the consulting division of the world’s largest computer company, Mr. Auchard outlines a disturbing picture of the security situation we are facing in our everyday use of technology. According to the IBM report referred to in Mr. Auchard’s article:

Known computer viruses grew by 28,327 in 2004 to bring the number of old and new viruses to 112,438. In 2002, only 4,551 new viruses were discovered. Of 147 billion e-mails scanned by IBM for customers in 2004, one in 16, or 6 percent, contained a virus. During 2002, just 0.5 percent of e-mail scanned had viruses. The average amount of spam circulating on global networks was 75 percent, the survey found. But during peak periods, spam accounted for as much as 95 percent of e-mail traffic.

The fastest-growing threat in 2004 was phishing – a method of enticing computer users to submit personal information or fall prey to other Internet deceptions. Such e-mails grew 5,000 percent last year, with some 18 million phishing attempts recorded, according to IBM.

These numbers are similar to what we experience at Temple. A total of 67% of the e-mail flowing through our system is classified as spam. Our virus protection programs catch approximately 24,000 viruses per day. For example, in a recent 24-hour period, Temple’s campus-wide Symantec AntiVirus protection system caught 9,830 viruses and our TUmail protection system trapped 13,200 viruses. In addition, the number of our students and employees reporting phishing attempts is increasing every week. Stuart McIrvine, director of IBM’s security strategy, said in an interview that these kinds of threats will only grow as computers become more integrated in our daily activities. Cars, for example, may become targets in the near future because they are now built with computer processors and software. There is good news, however, as Mr. Auchard points out in his article. We are not helpless. Temple University has taken many steps over the past two years to protect our computer resources from the threats of hackers, virus attacks, spyware and unwanted spam. In this effort, we:

• hired a Chief Information Security Officer to coordinate and focus our security measures, instituted a network security policy, purchased an enterprise spyware filtering package, required that all computers on our network have a standard enterprise-wide virus protector installed, purchased additional virus protection on our e-mail system, and
• installed an industry leading spam filter to keep unwanted e-mail to a minimum.

While we have made significant progress in protecting our computer resources at an enterprise level, this is not enough. Computer security is every user’s responsibility. The main causes of computer security problems at Temple are:

• the failure to keep current on Microsoft Windows updates, and
• the incessant peer-to-peer file sharing performed by our students, mainly for the illegal downloading of music and video files.

To do your part, set up your computer to automatically obtain Windows Updates by following the Windows Update instructions on the Computer Services Web site. Also, students must abide by Temple’s policy regarding illegal file sharing or face the consequences of not only computer problems and lack of computer support, but the possibility of lawsuits as well. It is incumbent upon us in Computer Services to constantly make you aware of the security issues, and it is incumbent upon each and every one of you to understand the threats and make sure you are practicing safe computing.

If you have any questions about computer security or have a security concern, please contact the Help Desk at 215-204-8000.