Over the summer, Information Services and Technology deployed a next generation firewall that is helping to keep our campus network safe by blocking threats from the Internet, including malicious software (malware) that can impact the availability and confidentiality of our computing resources.
Network Border Security
In addition to traditional network firewall capabilities, the new firewall provides real-time defense against tens of thousands of threats, blocks malware from entering the campus, and helps prevent users of our network from visiting malicious websites and servers. In September alone the firewall observed 2.7 million attacks on potential vulnerabilities in our network infrastructure and blocked 4.6 million attempts by malware to communicate with what are known as “botnets”.
The latest addition to the firewall automatically blocks access to web sites and services known to be distributing malware or participating in phishing attacks. The sites that are blocked are identified based upon global threat intelligence gathered by our firewall provider and bolstered by information shared between trusted peer institutions. A set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) has been posted on the IS&T web site.
Data Protection
In addition to the new next generation firewall, IS&T offers a number of services to help keep your systems secure. For BU owned systems, we have the ability to manage built-in full disk encryption for both Windows (BitLocker) and Mac (FileVault) systems.
The IT Help Center can also assist with encrypting personally owned computers as well as mobile devices. Encryption ensures that if your device is lost or stolen your data cannot be accessed by unauthorized individuals. Additionally, IS&T offers data backup services for BU owned systems via CrashPlan, available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems. The IT Help Center can also assist with securely erasing and disposing of hard drives that are no longer in use.
For additional information about these, or any other supported products and services, please email ithelp@bu.edu or call 617-353-HELP (4357).