NDSU chief information technology security officer Theresa Semmens and senior security analyst Jeff Gimbel are scheduled to present on higher education strategies for securing network printers at the 2013 Network Security Workshop, Oct. 8-10 in Portland, Ore.
Their presentation, “Printer Wars, Episode III, Revenge of the Printer Troll,” will focus on policies, procedures and strategies implemented at NDSU to secure all printers connected to the campus network.
“People tend to think of printers as devices that simply spit out paper,” Gimbel said. “But printers have hard drives, scanning capabilities and email capabilities that – if left open – can be vulnerable to cyber attack.”
Gimbel said efforts at NDSU are focused on ensuring printers are secured to comply with university and North Dakota University System policies. “If left unprotected, printers are vulnerable to printer trolls or attackers who are capable of connecting to them and harvesting files, which is a serious issue when it involves sensitive or private data,” Gimbel said.
In recent months, NDSU IT Security has scanned the campus network to identify printers with security vulnerabilities and has worked with departmental stakeholders to protect those printers and related data from malicious hackers.
In the coming weeks, the team will follow up with a remediation scan to make sure identified printers are secured and to detect any new or remaining vulnerabilities. Going forward, the team will collaborate with Information Technology Services’ Desktop Support staff to ensure security risks are mitigated during printer setup.
The three-day workshop on network security techniques and strategies is hosted by the Northwest Academic Computing Consortium. The North Dakota University System is one of 34 member institutions in the consortium. Network security professionals from institutions across the northwest, including the University of Alaska, University of Oregon and University of Washington, also will present at the event. Other topics include trusted third-party authentication, security in the cloud and asset-based risk management.
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. For more information about cyber security and data privacy, visit www.ndsu.edu/its/security or join the NDSU IT Security team on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NDSUITSEC.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.
