College Computers

In this modern era, computers have become a neccessary component of education. Any decent high school will be outfitted with computers. If a student reaches college without at least a working knowledge of computers, then he/she is starting off behind all the other students. Computers are not a luxury, they are a necessity, but here in Texas a couple of institutions of higher learning are having computer problems.

At the University of Texas in Austin, computers in the McComb School of Business were hacked and about 200,000 electronic records were accessed illegally. Information about students, staff, and alumni were contained in these electronic records. This is the second time UT's computers have been hacked in the last three years. The last hacker [in 2003] was a former UT student. He was given 5 years probation and ordered to pay $170,000 in restitution. The current hacker is not know at this time.

The electronic break-in was discovered last friday [April 21, 2006], but some records were obtained as early as April 11th. This means it took them 10 days to figure out they were being hacked. I find this unacceptable. If a college is going to store student, staff, and alumni information in their computers, then they have a responsibility to protect that information. UT's information security seems a bit suspect. I don't know if the break-in could have been prevented, but it definitely should have been discovered sooner. This is the largest university in the state. I can't believe it doesn't have the assets to provide better computer security.

In the other story, Delmar College in Corpus Christie, has blocked the Myspace.com website. This site can no longer be accessed from college computers. College officials said 40% of the daily internet traffic at the school involved this website. They said it was taking up too much bandwidth and was slowing all the college computers down.

Obviously, Delmar College needs to upgrade their computer system. It is wrong to punish students and ban websites because the college cannot handle the load on the computers. If the college doesn't upgrade and create the needed computer space, they will find themselves losing students. Most students are paying big money for a college education. Why should they spend that money at a college that can't meet their computer needs?

Computers are indeed neccessary in our modern educational system, but the schools must accept responsibility to insure the system is both adequate and secure. Doing less will not meet the needs of Texas students.