Cybersecurity Warning: University Networks Exposed Without Firewalls

"Why were universities so involved in these attacks? Because they're naked," said Stephen Northcutt, head of the SANS Institute's Global Incident Analysis Center in Bethesda, Md. "They're sitting out there on the Internet with no firewalls or anything." So naked are . . . "Why were universities so involved in these attacks? Because they're naked," said Stephen Northcutt, head of the SANS Institute's Global Incident Analysis Center in Bethesda, Md. "They're sitting out there on the Internet with no firewalls or anything." So naked are many of these university computers that the problem caught the attention of Jeffrey Hunker, who was director of the critical infrastructure outreach program at the National Security Council (NSC) during the Clinton administration.

"Universities were a major contributor to the DDOS attacks. They've always been a major contributor to security problems. This is clearly an area which I believe the [Bush] administration should tackle," Hunker said.

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