Securing a Small Community College - A Case Study

The challenges of securing a community college are formidable. Resources are often limited, the use of computers and software applications vary greatly from department to department, the atmosphere of academic freedom permeates all decisions, exploring and experimenting students can reek havoc on campus networks, and the inherent mission of disseminating information, and providing computer access to a wide variety of users are just a few of the challenges. This paper identifies critical computing resources used in a small community college, develops a method of defining risk, presents a network design, as well as, implements security policies to address risks, and formulates a long term strategy for securing vital campus resources.