As new students pour onto campus, many new devices are introduced into the college ecosystem. Smartphones, tablets and PCs are only becoming more popular, and as with anything worth stealing, their safety may be in more danger than ever.

It’s called “cybercrime,” or as one ISU employee called it, “any crime that has been committed using computer technology.”

Andy Weisskopf, information security officer at the university, said that “cybercrime” is a vague term, much like “cyberwar”, and that it can be broken up into individual illegal activities such as ransom ware, identity theft or bank account hijacking.  

“The offense could be as simple as someone using a computer they aren’t authorized to use, someone gaining access to someone else’s accounts, or phishing scams,” Weisskopf said.

With the university getting more connected every year with services like Eduroam and Blackboard, Information Technology Services has a lot of traffic to manage and protect.

“Any given day, we block 200 to 500 off-campus threats that are attacking university systems. We receive roughly 30 reports a day that require a response from the security team. Threats can range from spam messages to major compromises or attacks going on,” Weisskopf said.

According to Weisskopf, one of the most significant threats the university received was in the form of a virus nearly 10 years ago.

The virus was fast-spreading and managed to shut down campus networks until Weisskopf and his coworkers could get things running again.

“The nature of that virus was that it propagated faster than the system could handle, thus shutting it down,” Weisskopf said.

If a staff member or a student were to ever be affected by any computer-related criminal activities, Weisskopf said that the necessary actions would be determined by the severity of the activity.

“If they consider it to be a threat to health, safety or security, the ISU Department of Public Safety can do an investigation,” Weisskopf says. “To prevent these things from spurring, students can buy Kensington locks for their computers and install Microsoft’s Security Essentials, to start.”

Weisskopf said that even though the campus network is secured, it shouldn’t be connected to as a safe haven.

“It’s still the Internet. It’s ultimately up to the user whether he or she puts themselves at risk.”

According to Weisskopf, email phishing, the act of sending out fraudulent emails with links to bad websites in an attempt to steal information, is the most common issue and that it happens on a continual basis.

“It’s the bane of our existence right now,” he said. “My general advice is to be suspicious of things you receive by email if you’re not certain of their source.”

Kevin Simon, junior in graphic design, had some advice for people who use the Internet as much as college kids tend to.

“Putting your personal information out there, using the same password too many times, not having everything collective; they’re all things that give people that many more chances to grab information about you,” Simon said.

“Google Chrome can tell you if sites are safe or not, but there’s also general intuition on whether or not a site is sketchy,” Simon said. “I’ve never had any big issues with cybercrime, because I own a Mac. A lot of guys that make trojans don’t really aim toward Mac because their programs are more written for PC.”

Simon suggested that using different passwords and common sense would be the best ways to ensure and maintain cybersecurity.