The PowerPoint slides from the June 4 Risks of Social Networking presentation by Harvard Townsend, K-State’s chief information security officer, are now available.
To access other presentations, see the IT security roundtables webpage.
Tag: security risk
K-State computers hacked via instant messaging
On Oct. 14, 10 K-State computers had their network access blocked because they were compromised and all talking to the same botnet controller. Most if not all the computers had some relationship to one particular department and they were communicating with the botnet controller using the instant messaging (IM) protocol used by Windows Live Messenger (also known as Windows Messenger or MSN Messenger).
It appears that one computer was compromised and had malicious software installed on it that automatically sent instant messages to everyone in that person’s MSN Messenger contact/buddy list. These malicious instant messages consisted of “he he :)” and a link to a website. Since the recipients thought the instant message was from a colleague, they trusted it and clicked on the link, which in turn infected their computer.
Continue reading “K-State computers hacked via instant messaging”
Peer-to-Peer file sharing risks
Since May 2000, K-State policy has prohibited the sharing of music, movies, software, etc via peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications like eMule and BitTorrent because of the impact on network performance. This policy and K-State’s position of blocking P2P network traffic at the campus border was bolstered by the recently passed Higher Education Opportunity Act that includes provisions designed to reduce illegal sharing of copyrighted materials through P2P applications on college campuses. Continue reading “Peer-to-Peer file sharing risks”
