What has been the most important security development in higher education over the past five years?
JS: The most important thing is not so much security per se, but the context. Five years ago, personal computers were used, for the most part, for word processing. Now, the Internet and personal computers have become ubiquitous. We don t talk about whether someone has a computer; we ask how many they have. They are common tools, like pens and pencils. We ve become a community that is very much computer-focused. And then we have the Internet to tie all of this together. But the same Internet that might tie my computer to my colleagues computers and to your computer, also might allow my computer to be touched by people who have less than pure motives. So in some sense I think the biggest thing for security in the last five years is the increased vulnerability that we ve had because we are so much more connected. Providing security becomes that much more important because we re that much more connected. S: Discussions about security seem to center around authentication or authorization. I
