Tuesday, July 25, 2006

University of Texas Security Measures

The Daily Texan wrote an article about the new security measures that the University of Texas-Austin will be implementing this year. They plan to implement the same level of security used by the most security organizations in the world, such as Pfizer.

My initial reaction is: Wow, this is really impressive!

This is impressive because the sheer cost to implement a project of this scale is fairly substantial because it touches upon so much of the University's computer infrastructure. I give a lot of credit to UT for going through the effort to implement this system. They plan to provide possession-based security codes to every faculty member next year. These codes will be provided to users through USB key chains, cell phones, or key cards. If I could offer one bit of advice, it would be that cell phones are not completely secure, and therefore might be vulnerable to hacking.

However, the larger concern is whether the dean will find it necessary to implement the security system to all users. As president of Pitylak Security, I am telling my clients that comprehensive security measures like this are very important because of the high value organizations should place on personal identification protection.

This is a major step in the right direction.

Ryan Pitylak