Not
surprisingly, some 85% of K-12 and higher education institutions in the U.S.
and U.K. permit students and/or instructors to log into institutional networks
from their own computing devices, according to a new survey from Bradford
Networks, says an article in Campus
Technology.
What may be
surprising, the article adds, is that most of these institutions are somewhat lax
in their security measures.
The
Bradford survey found more than half don’t make their users install antivirus
software first and two-thirds don’t have the ability to determine who’s
connecting to their network.
While 61%
of the responding institutions do limit what certain users can access on their
networks, the rest give all of their users unfettered access to all parts of
the network. Twenty-seven percent don’t even require users to register before
accessing the network.
But campus
IT departments are already aware this is a problem. Supporting the
bring-your-own-device trend and the related security challenges is the No. 2
issue on the Top Ten IT Issues of 2012 report from Educause. The report notes
it can be difficult for schools to balance security and privacy with the need
to provide access to information and resources while supporting an
ever-widening array of devices and platforms.
Another
challenge is that some budget and policy decisions are out of the hands of IT
staff, and are not always a priority for those with decision-making power.
