Todays computer labs are subject to various kinds of malicious activities ranging
from cyber criminals launching denial of service attacks on major commercial
websites to users damaging the equipment. Every year these activities cost
academic institutions and the general public millions of dollars. To get the situation
under control and protect themselves against accusations of negligence, lab
managers need to establish a secure lab environment. Lab Management Systems
is a major component of the secure lab environment.
SECURITY THREATS
A computer lab can become a target as well as an instrument of unwanted activity.
The following paragraphs identify the major threats.
Threat 1. Computer Crime
A poorly supervised computer lab is similar to a loaded gun left on a street. A
wide range of dangerous activities can be performed from a workstation connected
to the Internet. Denial of service attacks, virus distribution, data tampering in
corporate information systems, unauthorized access to bank accounts, identity
theft, and unsolicited commercial email are just a few of them. With the large
number of users coming to the lab, it is a certainty that at some point, a person
with malicious intent will attempt to use the labs equipment to perform their
deeds. With no user tracking system in place, cyber crimes can be performed
anonymously.
As a result of attacks on the largest web retailers, cyber crime cost businesses
tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue due to site downtime and consumer
confidence issues. Consumers are less likely to provide credit card numbers and
other personal information if they believe the site is non-secure. Reported losses
from cyber crime totaled $455.8 million in 2002. The actual amount is likely
much higher.
In comparison, the owner of the gun is responsible for providing safe storage;
otherwise this is a negligent conduct (Long v. Turk, 962 P.2d 1093, Kansas
Supreme Court 1998; Estate of Heck v. Stoffer, No. 02A03-0007-CV-267, Supreme
Court of Indiana). With large amounts of money at stake, lab administrators
must protect themselves from charges of negligent conduct in case an attack is
launched from their facility.
There is also a chance that the organization owning the computer lab will itself
fall victim to a hacker attack. An average academic institution runs Accounting,
Human Resource, Learning Management and other information systems. It is
even easier to attack a local information system since computer labs are located
within the security perimeter.
Lab managers need to ensure that equipment in the lab cannot be used for
criminal activity. Although no solution can give a total guarantee, managers do
have the capability to minimize the likelihood of disaster, protect themselves
against accusations of negligent conduct, and provide efficient means of
investigation for lab personnel and law enforcement.
Corporate IT departments are already armed with an impressive variety of security
tools such as firewalls, vulnerability assessment applications, intrusion detection
software, etc. These tools help protect computers against hacker attacks and
identify computers from which the attacks have been launched. The remaining
problem to be solved is how to further identify a user in a multi-user environment,
prevent him/her from accessing workstations in the future, and establish usage
policies that discourage users from performing unwanted activities.
This is where Lab Management Systems, with their ability to manage access to
computer resources, collect usage history, identify abusers, maintain alert lists,
and remotely supervise user activities come into play.
Threat 2. Unwanted user activity
The following activities fall under this category:
- Illegal activities such as terrorism-related data exchange and content
publication, illegal file sharing, and exchange of child pornography.
- Lawful activities offending other users or resulting in waste of computer
resources such as browsing porn sites, using instant messengers, playing
computer games, and running non-business-related applications.
To counter these activities, lab employees must be able to prevent launching
certain software applications, maintain the list of known violators, and maintain
and query user access logs. In exceptional cases, administrators should be able
to view remotely a report displaying the software launched by the user, take a
snapshot of the users screen, and remotely shut down applications on user
machines when necessary. Lab Management Systems, with software metering,
surveillance, and user tracking capabilities will address these needs.
