With the recent scare of the South Carolina Department of Revenue hacks, USC is at last stepping up to bat in its efforts to beef up our cybersecurity systems. Over the next two years, Secure Carolina plans to double the size of its cybersecurity teams and spend more than $2 million updating the technologies and policies.
If there’s anything worth spending $2 million on these days, we’d say cybersecurity is probably it, especially when just last summer, hackers found their way to the information and Social Security numbers of 34,000 students and employees in the College of Education. In fact, we’re surprised USC didn’t try to patch up these e-holes earlier and instead waited for something as threatening as the Department of Revenue breach to take action. According to the chief information security officer, USC had been entertaining the idea for many years but just hadn’t acted on it yet.
Nevertheless, USC’s efforts are certainly better late than never. The university holds financial and academic records, employment information, addresses and phone numbers of 30,000 students, and the prospect of possibly having all of that information float around in cyberspace is nothing short of frightening. While it’s impossible to be 100-percent protected, Secure Carolina’s upcoming projects will hopefully keep students and staff at USC in safer arms in the future.
As Internet technology advances, building solid cyber defenses will become more difficult and more crucial. We’re glad USC is recognizing that.