By Alex Bradshaw
New scams and viruses hit the Web weekly, and computer users looking for protection are sometimes not sure where to turn. Students at the University of Louisville got some relief last week.
The U of L Information Technology Services department held its first annual Cyber-Security Awareness Week on both the Belknap campus and Health Science Center quad.
Bruce Edwards, the privacy officer at the School of Public Health and Information Sciences, said the program is designed to help students with their existing hard drive problems caused by worms and viruses. “We do not only want to correct the students’ problems that they currently have with their computers, but we want to educate them on how to keep their computers clean before they get any viruses or worms,” he said.
Cyber-Security Week consisted of a cookout with booths featuring companies like IBM and Microsoft.
They also added free food, educational events and free “cyber screening” for computer problems, said Jim Travelstead of Information Technology Services. Students were able to bring their infected computers for analysis by staff members.
They also gave away free anti-virus disks. Edwards said they printed 500 copies and still ran out. Those who did not get a disk went on a waiting list.
Edwards hopes more services will become available as the event grows.
“U of L completely funded this event,” he said. “As this is a new program at the university, I think that funding will increase with student interest.”
The cookouts drew the largest crowd, attracting approximately 800 students. While the free food brought some attention to their cause, the educational events were less popular.
Erin Masterson, a senior Psychology major, said he attended the cookout to learn how to protect his computer. “It’s so easy to acquire viruses on your computer that can be detrimental to a student,” Masterson said. “I want to make sure that it doesn’t happen to me.”
Travelstead said he was pleased with the student response. “Although our turnout in the Business School was rather low, I felt as though the students that I talked to were eager to learn how to prevent viruses and worms.”
Edwards said he felt the event was an overwhelming success.
“The students were great, and I would say that they showed lots of interest. The main goal of this event was to increase security for the students and faculty at U of L. I think that we’ve accomplished that.”
“As this was the first annual Cyber-Security Week, we didn’t know exactly how this event was going to go,” he said.
He also encouraged students to provide constructive criticism so they can improve.
“This event is designed for the U of L students, so we encourage them to add to the design.”
