Security

Welcome to Network Security at USU

Desktop Security tasks (passwords, patching and updating systems and software, virus and malware detection,  personal firewall configuration and personal identifying information audits) are the responsibility of the end user or their technical support person, with the assistance of the IT Service Desk.  Network Security consists of monitoring network traffic to detect intrusions and compromises and probing systems on the network for vulnerabilities due to desktop security failures.

Weekly Vulnerability Scans - we scan all live IP addresses in *.usu.edu space weekly using Nessus  , publish the results and announce the serious vulnerabilities on the local network-managers and outage-report mailing lists.  After a few days, if we have not been advised of corrective action to resolve the vulnerability, we disable the network access for the vulnerable computer.  Our border traffic visualization tool shows us that the hackers are scanning our address space, too.  If we don't get vulnerabilities corrected or offline, the hackers will do what they want with them.

Border Traffic Visualization Tool - stop by the Security Bunker in SER 301 and see the blinky lights showing traffic and attacks.

Peer to Peer file sharing isn't really a Security issue, except when malware is hidden in popular files.

Contact us a security@usu.edu or 797-1804