Network security concern

Every day, students send dozens of electronic messages or store personal files in their accounts thinking that their messages will remain private and their files secure. This, however, might not be the case.

According to one computing assistant (CA) who asked to remain unidentified, break-ins into personal accounts are not uncommon. “People [on the Internet] have a false sense of security.” Many users leave their accounts open in a public cluster and take a break, give out their passwords, or assign predictable passwords which hackers can figure out. Such unwise judgments are what lead to breaches of privacy, he said.

Stanley Eisenstat, professor of computer science, said that the “safety of your account is determined by your own control.” Giving out passwords to friends, he said, is one of the main ways intruders gain access and control over a victim’s account. Even so, Eisenstat said, another important component of a user’s account depends on the security the system uses.

At Yale, the issue of network security is presently being addressed. According to Andy Newman, systems programmer for technology and programming, there are several levels of security available for students’ accounts. For electronic mail accounts, Newman said there is a basic level of security that protects students from other students who might try to view their files. Because of the access privileges given to users’ accounts when they are first set up, people that might try to break in - even at this basic level of security - will “run into substantial walls that will ultimately impede their access,” Newman said.

Aside from the basic level of security accounts are given, employees of ACS “maintain a substantial number of tools that check the Minerva cluster for anomalies that might be indicative of illegal use of accounts,” Newman said. Although the Minerva/Mercury/Morpheus pantheon is monitored continuously, not all accounts can be monitored simultaneously, allowing for some anomalous activity to go undetected.

More at Yaleherald

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