Benefits of centralized cybersecurity tools in a university environment

Since January 2023, the Information Security Office (ISO) and UIT Partner Relations have been working with University of Utah and University of Utah Health organizations to educate them about and help them implement a standard suite of tools as part of the U’s Cybersecurity Program.

The program, which addresses the key findings of an external assessment of the U’s cybersecurity posture, is designed to create a more secure IT environment for U students, patients, faculty, staff, and affiliates. To meet this need, the Unified Cybersecurity Toolset allows the ISO to consolidate monitoring, logging, and response activities around cybersecurity incidents.

Centralized cybersecurity tools also have advantages for IT staff, including:

• Improved visibility and control: They provide administrators with a single console from which they can view and manage IT security across the entire university environment. This can improve visibility into cybersecurity threats and make it easier to take corrective action. This ability will be deployed to department administrators as the platform allows.
• Increased efficiency: They can help improve the efficiency of IT security operations by automating tasks, such as log monitoring and incident response. This can free up IT security staff in ISO and local departments to focus on more strategic initiatives.
• Improved compliance: They can help universities comply with cyberinsurance requirements and various regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

In addition to these general benefits, centralized cybersecurity tools can provide specific benefits for different areas of a university environment, such as:

• Protect student safety: They can be used to monitor activity on the university network and identify potential safety threats to students.
• Protect research integrity: They can be used to protect research data from theft and tampering. This is important because research data can be used to develop new products and services.
• Protect intellectual property: They can be used to protect intellectual property, which can be valuable to our university.

Overall, the university's centralized IT security tools play an essential role in helping us to protect our data and systems from cyberattacks.

Contributing: Larrisa Beth Turner, senior content strategist for UIT Strategic Communication

 

Node 4 Search