IT in Education

Safety first when going online

Vasant Kumar, a technical consultant with Websense hosted a session on the changing threat landscape

Students are logging on to YouTube to access online lectures and study material. They are using Facebook and Twitter to engage in academic discussions and communicate with each other. Online blogs and forums are increasingly used by students for exchanging information. To cut a long story short, the Internet is fast becoming the key to 21st century learning for modern educators and students in today’s educational institutions.

Nevertheless, while on one hand the Internet has become a powerful tool for academic institutions, it has also exposed them to a world of complex security threats on the other. According to some of the recent findings of Websense Security Labs there has been a 233% growth in the number of malicious Web sites in the last six months and a 671% growth during the last year. The survey also found that:

• 77% of Web sites with malicious code are legitimate sites that have been compromised
• 61% of the top 100 sites either hosted malicious content or contained a masked redirect to lure unsuspecting victims from legitimate sites to malicious sites
• 95% of user-generated comments to blogs, chat rooms and message boards are spam or malicious
• 50% of Web pages linked to Web sites categorized as “Sex” also served malicious content
• 69% of all Web pages with any objectionable content (e.g. Sex, Adult Content, Gambling, Drugs) also had at least one malicious link
• 78% of new Web pages discovered in the first half of 2009 with any objectionable content had at least one malicious link

These statistics bear testimony to how unsafe it has become to go online. Therefore to promote greater awareness amongst academicians about the perils of an unsafe online experience, Websense the leading Web security provider hosted a session titled ‘Web Security - The Changing Threat Landscape’. Vasant Kumar, a technical consultant with Websense addressed a select gathering of representatives from some of India’s leading educational institutions.

After setting the agenda for his presentation, Kumar informed the attendees about the risks that educational establishments are exposed to when surfing without adequate security measures in place. Kumar spoke a length about threat vectors including Spyware, Key loggers, Malicious URLs, Proxy Avoidance etc. He also talked about the legal risks academic institutions are exposed to due to instances of student malpractice, illegal download of copyrighted content etc.

Highlighting the inadequate measures currently deployed by most establishments Kumar said, “Traditional security methodologies such as Firewall, Antivirus, IDS/IPS aren’t quite enough to protect networks. Attacks are becoming more complex and targeted in nature. For instance most of the top 100 sites have been compromised by blended attacks.”

Once he had clearly explained the ‘fear factor’ to the attendees, Kumar took the opportunity to introduce the Websense V10000, the company’s latest, most advanced Web security gateway appliance platform. Kumar claimed, “V10000 is the industry’s most accurate and effective solution for Web 2.0 content control and threat protection, enabling organizations to accelerate business without having to worry about security, productivity and liability threats such as malicious or inappropriate content and data loss.”

Detailing the features of the appliance Kumar said that it utilizes a hardened operating system optimized for analyzing Web traffic and content and is designed to meet the performance requirements of high-throughput enterprise networks.

The Websense V10000 provides centralized management of Web security, proxy and cache, with application controls to manage and secure the enterprise in a Web 2.0 world.

As Kumar’s presentation neared its climax, he also provided the audience with a brief snapshot of Websense’s other areas of expertise viz. messaging security and data security.

Kumar ended his presentation by giving a quick overview of Websense as a company, its areas of expertise, customers and even shared a couple of customer case studies with those present.