On Oct. 21,
Northern Kentucky University hosted a Cyber Security Symposium. It was the ninth annual event, and featured national and local experts in the field of cyber security.
The symposium focused on online privacy and ethics in the information age; how to secure mobile apps, cloud storage and databases against cyber attacks; and security for the medical industry.
NKU was designated by the
National Security Agency and the
Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in information assurance and cyber defense. It’s also the first university in Greater Cincinnati to offer cyber security programs, such as minors in information security and computer forensics, and graduate certificates in secure software engineering and corporate information security — these programs were all added to the course catalog in 2006.
“In 2016, we have a large team of security-oriented faculty and we offer a broad array of cyber security education programs,” said Dr. James Walden, director of the
Center for Information Security.
The symposium is more important now than ever as hackers are obtaining consumers’ credit card information daily, and both local, national and international websites are hacked regularly as well.
“Prevention technologies like firewalls only slow attackers,” Walden said. “It is essential for an organization to have robust incident detection and response capabilities.”
He encourages people to use fully updated software and two-factor authentication.
“Citizens need to understand public issues related to cyber security, like why it will never be secure to vote online, why backdoors inserted by law enforcement make computers less secure for everyone, and how corporate and government surveillance of individuals and groups impacts their lives and futures.”
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