UConn to work with Quinnipiac University to discuss information security

The University of Connecticut’s new collaboration with Quinnipiac University, a forum to unite colleges and universities statewide to discuss information security in higher education, kicked off yesterday with their inaugural session held on UConn’s Storrs campus.

Jason Pufahl, UConn’s chief information security officer and Quinnipiac’s information security officer Brian Kelly, founded the Connecticut Higher Education Roundtable on Information Security (CHERIS) in an attempt to bring those in charge of information maintenance and security at Connecticut’s institutions of higher education together to share some of their best strategies and solutions, according to UConn’s spokesperson and news and information associate, Stephanie Reitz.

With so much sensitive university entrusted information as well as financial and personal information being stored in computer systems, it is vital that the most sophisticated information security solutions and techniques are being utilized.

“The biggest focus for me is the response to hackers and people trying to steal credentials,” Pufahl said.

“Security is always an issue, we need to make sure outsiders aren’t getting in,” Reitz said. “Unfortunately there will always be someone out there looking to hack. Our intention is to avoid it.”
Issues such as mobile security, incident response and security awareness were also on the agenda for yesterday’s forum.

Twenty-three of Connecticut’s higher education institutions have signed up to participate, according to a UConn news release for CHERIS.

According to Reitz, all of the institutions are dealing with similar problems and working on similar solutions.

Teaming up with Quinnipiac University, a large institution on the other side of the state with a well-established information security system, according to Pufahl, will make the forums accessible for institutions at both ends of the state by switching off meeting locations. It will also save the institutions money by eliminating the costs of traveling to conferences out of state.

“I just feel that for a state that only has a couple hundred miles across it, there’s no reason we can’t all meet up and work together,” Pufahl said.

Pufahl’s goal is to have biannual forums. By doing this he hopes to achieve CHERIS’ simple goal of increasing security awareness amongst colleges and universities across the state.