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HATTIESBURG
- Experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Mississippi
Attorney General's Office and The University of Southern Mississippi
will focus on how individuals and businesses can protect against
information terrorism and other cyber crimes during a Brown Bag
Lunch presentation Tuesday, March 25.
The event is
set for 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. in Joseph Greene Hall, Room 115, on
the Southern Miss campus. The public is invited to the free seminar.
The keynote
speaker is Chris Michaelsen, FBI special agent from the Jackson
field office, who will speak on national cyber security strategies
and issues faced by the Internet community. Following his address,
Michaelsen will join a panel of experts for a question-and-answer
session. The panel also includes Jean Vaughan, assistant attorney
general, who is responsible for educating Mississippi on cyber crime;
Dr. Steve Mallory, chair of the Southern Miss Criminal Justice Department;
and Isaac Johnston, security administrator at Southern Miss. Following
the sessions, members of the OTR technical staff will be available
to distribute information and security tips.
"Our information
is a valued commodity and an infrastructure tool of which we need
to be more mindful," said Paige Strickland, director of the
OTR Technology Infrastructure Unit. "If each of us does the
job of protecting his or her computer and data, eventually it will
have an overall impact on the entire system. This is where we can,
as good citizens, contribute to our homeland security efforts."
Southern Miss
President Shelby F. Thames said he encourages people to attend the
special forum to learn more about protecting "valued information
from cyber terrorism."
"The University
of Southern Mississippi is initiating a technology security awareness
campaign with the goal of protecting the integrity of information
infrastructures," Thames said. "The information to be
shared in this forum will be especially helpful to businesses, their
information technology officers and security administrators in addition
to our own campus community."
The biggest
security concern on the Southern Miss campus, said Chief Technology
Officer Candy Santell, is the proper stewardship of confidential
and sensitive data that includes private employee and student information.
"Improper handling of this data can result in unauthorized
access to the data, potentially leading to such crimes as identity
theft," Santell said. "Our goal is to get computer users
to incorporate some basic security principles into their work on
a daily basis."
For any computer
user on or off campus, the threat of viruses is very real. Consequences
of getting one can result in information being deleted from hard
drives or being rendered unusable.
"Every
month, 25 percent of the computers on campus are exposed to viruses,"
Johnston said.
The Security
Awareness Day event is sponsored by the university's Office of Technology
Resources (OTR) and is part of a comprehensive campaign intended
to educate university employees and local businesses about using
the best practices in maintaining the integrity of computer data
and entire information systems.
For more information
on Security Awareness Day, contact Evelyn Green at 266-4359.
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