Educause Task Force on System Security

Educause Task Force on System Security Gordon Wishon Georgia Institute of Technology Networking 2001 <www.educause.edu/security> EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

The Current Situation • 3500+ Colleges and Universities • > 1000 Community colleges • < 100 major research universities • 125+ University Medical Schools • 400 Teaching Hospitals • 150+ Institutional members of Internet2 EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

The Current Situation • The Internet is a world-wide, increasingly mission-critical infrastructure • Internet’s underlying structure, protocols, & governance are still primarily open • Many vendors ship systems w/ insecure configs (NT, Linux, W2K, Unixes, IIS ) • Massive CPU power & bandwidth available to crackers as well as scientists, e-commerce • Many college & university networks are insecure EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Information Security in Higher Education • Research universities: deployment of workstations & servers by researchers whose talents and interests are usually focused elsewhere • Smaller institutions: dearth of tech skills • Dorm networking: little adult supervision • Too few security experts; weak tools;most institutions have no InfoSec office. • Few policies regarding systems security EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Targets of Opportunity on US Higher Education Computer Networks • Sensitive Data • Credit Card #s, ACH (NACHA) bank #s • Patient Records (SSN) • Student Records (SSN) • Institution Financial Records • Investment Records • Donor Records • Research Data & Other Intellectual Property EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Recent Academic InfoSec Incidents • Feb 2000 – Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks bring down key dot com sites; university sites implicated (UC Davis, UCLA, Stanford, etc.) • June-July 2000 – Univ. of Washington Medical Center intrusion. 4000 medical records involved. No firewall protecting server. • July 2000 -- Educause Task Force Formed • Feb 2001 – Indiana University Bursar server with anon FTP enabled and student records. • March 2001– 40+ E-Commerce NT/IIS servers hacked from E. Europe. Credit card #s. FBI NIPC alert. EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Trends in Academic InfoSec • E-Commerce site threaten litigation against future DDoS sites. Liability for negligence? • Insurance companies begin to rewrite liability policies, separate ‘cyber’ policies to require info security vulnerability assessments & changes • Funding agencies to require firewalls, security? • HIPAA is a “forcing function” in academic Medical Centers • FERPA, COPPA, DMCA, Privacy legislation • Growing concern over government intervention EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Corporate InfoSec Trends, (relatively rare in US HE) • Firewalls, proxies, user access control • Network monitoring, bandwidth management • Extensive logging, logfile analysis • IDS – Intrusion Detection Systems • VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) • PPTP, L2TP, IPSEC • Strong Authentication – PKI, Smartcards • Vulnerability scanning (internal, external) • Change Control / Management • Managed Security Services (e.g. outsourced) EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Why US Higher Ed Computer Networks are Attractive Targets • Platforms for launching attacks • Wired dorms (insecure Linux PCs, PC Trojans) • High bandwidth Internet (Fract T3, T3, T3+) • Sophisticated computing capacity (scientific computing clusters, even web servers, etc.) • Unsophisticated user population • “Open” network security environment (no firewalls or only “light” filtering routers on many high bandwidth WANs and LANs) • Trust relationships between departments at various Universities for research (e.g. Physics community) • University research lab computers are often insecure and poorly managed EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Unique Challenges in Higher Education • Loose confederation of autonomous entities • Academic “culture” and tradition of open access to information • Lack of control over users • Diversity • Lack of financial resources • Creative Network Anarchy – anyone can attach anything to the network • IT has not always been central to institutional mission -- changing attitudes and getting “buy in” requires politics and leadership. EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Unique Strengths of US Higher Education • Intellectual Capital • Culture of Open Access to Information • Culture of Collaboration EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Educause Task Force • Announced to all member reps in July email from Mark Luker, VP for Networking • Co-chaired by Gordon Wishon, Associate VP & Associate Vice Provost for IT, Georgia Tech; & Dan Updegrove, VP for Information Technology, University of Texas at Austin EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

General Plan of Attack • Increase Awareness of Risks, Vulnerabilities, Liabilities • Leverage Intellectual Capital • Develop Community Reaction and Response Mechanisms • Identify & Inform Community of Risks Associated with Emerging Technologies EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Task Force Committees • Education & Awareness • Michele Norin, University of Arizona • Gordon Wishon, VP & Vice Provost for IT, Georgia Tech • Campus Policies • Mark S. Bruhn, IT Policy Officer, Indiana • Rodney Petersen, Dir, Policy & Planning, U of Maryland, College Park • Detection, Prevention, & Response • Jack Suess, CIO, University of Maryland, Baltimore County • Steve Hansen, Security Policy Officer, Stanford • Emerging Technologies • Clifford Collins, Ohio Academic & Research Network (OARnet) • Ken Klingenstein, University of Colorado & Chief Technologist/Middleware Project Director, Internet 2 EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Education & Awareness • Increase Awareness of Risks, Vulnerabilities, Liabilities • Identify Constituent Groups, Audiences • Develop Messages Appropriate for Audiences • Utilize Existing Communication Vehicles (Educause Review, etc.) • Establish Partnerships with Higher Ed Leadership Groups (ACE, AAHE, NASULGC, NACUBO, etc.) EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Leverage Intellectual Capital • Policies • Evaluating best practices in Higher Education, Corporations, Government, Military • Developing common recommended policies • Procedures • Physical Security • Computer Security • Network Security • Business Continuity/Disaster Planning • Tools • Strong authentication methods (smart cards, tokens, etc.) • Vulnerability assessment (scanners) • DDoS zombie detectors • Patch tools EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Develop Community Reaction, Response Mechanism • Education ISAC, CERT • Real time information sharing mechanism • Security consulting • Vulnerability assessment • Emergency notification • Internet 911 services for academia? EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Emerging Technologies • Identify and inform community of risks • Influence design of new technologies • Internet 2, HEPKI-PAG, HEPKI-TAG, CREN, etc. EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Additional Areas Under Investigation • Federal Funding Opportunities • NSF Grant? • Partnering Opportunities • Federal Agencies (NIST, DOD, FBI NIPC, NSA etc.) • Security Interest Groups • SANS Institute • Computer Security Institute • Forum of Incident Response & Security Teams • System Administrators Guild of USENIX • USENIX Security Conference • CERT Coordination Center • Center for Internet Security • O/S, Computer, Network, and Security Service Vendors EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

How You Can Participate • Welcome: info security officers, network & systems experts, policy specialists, attorneys, vendors, -- even CIOs! • Meetings, email, website, white papers • <http://www.educause.edu/security> EDUCAUSE Systems Security Task Force - April 11, 2001

Educause Task Force on System Security