Page 10 - OIT 2015 Progress Report

SUPPORTING INITIATIVES
IN CONJUNCTION WITH MANY OF THE OE2C INITIATIVES, VARIOUS SOFTWARE TOOLS WERE DEPLOYED TO ENHANCE AND STREAMLINE UNIVERSITY PROCESSES. OIT WAS HEAVILY INVOLVED IN THE IMPLEMENTATION AND TRAINING OF MANY OF THESE RESOURCES.
SECURITY INITIATIVES
As higher education research data becomes more and more dependent on digital means of creation, storage and collaboration, the more that data becomes a target for those wishing to compromise or steal important information. The job of securing this information is never done, and the Office of Information Technology works every day to try to stay ahead of the most pervasive threats that affect academic institutions worldwide.
In addition to keeping our underlying technical infrastructure secure, OIT strives to educate the entire SMU community on how to protect their data. For the past several years, the security division of OIT has conducted simulated “phishing” campaigns in order to educate faculty and staff on the dangers of malicious e-mails. Since the simulations have taken place, the “click-through” rate - the amount of people who fell victim to the simulation - has dropped significantly to only 2.3 percent. In turn, this has reduced the actual security breaches that affect faculty and staff accounts.
The security team has also worked towards making physical security systems, like access control and surveillance, easier to manage. As part of recent initiatives to simplify these systems, surveillance systems have been revamped to one management system, reducing from 11 systems to 1, making the physical security of university areas more consistent and reliable.
Through community education as well as a robust regiment of barriers to entry by nefarious entities, OIT continues to assure the integrity of University data.
KEY DELIVERABLES FOR 2016
Multi-factor authentication Infrastructure unification
Implementation of talent management solution
(PARTNERSHIP WITH HUMAN RESOURCES)
Implementation of electronic form solution
(PARTNERSHIP WITH HUMAN RESOURCES AND PAYROLL)
Parking garage toll tag readers
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(PARTNERSHIP WITH PARKING & ID CARD SERVICES)
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