Previous |
Next |
June 23, 2006, 01:07 PM ET
'A Profound Problem' at Ohio U.
When Ohio University suspended two IT officials yesterday for failing to prevent a damaging string of hacking incidents, campus administrators said they were acting on the suggestions made in an independent report. Now details of that report have been released, and for Ohio’s beleaguered computer-services staff, they’re not pretty.
The university’s computer- and network-services department repeatedly brushed aside efforts—often spearheaded by a former provost—to bolster the security of campus computer systems, according to Moran Technology Consulting, an Illinois firm. The network didn’t go unimproved for lack of money, the report said: The computing department simply didn’t make security a priority. In fact, the department ran an average annual surplus of $1.4-million, and it found the funds to give employees an unusually robust benefits package that included prepaid health-club memberships.
The report argued that Ohio’s computing-services staff as a whole is underskilled and disorganized, but it singled out Thomas Reid, the director of computer and network services, for especially stinging criticism. Mr. Reid received an effusive job review from the university even after the first hacking incidents were discovered, according to The Columbus Dispatch, but the consultants accused him of gross negligence. —Brock Read
Categories: Leadership, Security
Add Your Comment
Commenting is closed.