News/Research

Laura Sydell on UC Cyber Security

15 Mar, 2016

Laura Sydell on UC Cyber Security

NPR has recently published an article in their All Tech Considered: Privacy and Security column. Laura Sydell writes on the recent UC privacy and cybersecurity controversy. This is especially sensitive at UC Berkeley, where there's a tradition of the federal government monitoring our students and faculty.

"A controversy over a secretly installed data monitoring system is simmering at university campuses across California.

"Last summer, hackers broke into the computer network at the UCLA medical center. A few months later, the University of California system's president quietly ordered a new security system to monitor Internet traffic on all UC campuses.

"'And the people who had to put the box in place were ordered to do so and also ordered to keep quiet about it,' says Ethan Ligon, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

"But they didn't keep quiet: Ligon and other faculty members found out — and were surprised that they weren't consulted."

Read more at NPR:

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/03/11/468963220/at-calif-campuses-a-test-for-free-speech-privacy-and-cybersecurity