UoM to constitute committee to study website security

Following the tampering of the University of Mysore (UoM) website (www.unimysore.ac.in), the varsity authorities are set to form an expert committee to conduct a study on the safety of the network. The varsity has sought advice from Chennai-based professionals.

A team from DCI Information Technologies, Chennai, will visit the varsity within a week to check the website and they will submit a report to take up security measures, said the authorities.

As a precautionary measure, the varsity has kept an eye on all the network users through a security software. As many as 3,522 people, including, students, researchers, teaching faculty members use the wi-fi facility provided by the varsity. The university launched the free wi-fi facility in 2011 and only registered users can avail the facility.

All the persons, who register to the facility, are provided with an user ID and login ID by the university. While PG students need to renew their ID every year, research scholars need to renew the ID once in three year. However, passed out students are not able to use the network.

According to UoM Information and Communication department convener Hemanth Kumar, the wi-fi facility has a server and 3,000 people can use the facility at a time. “The network can be accessed within one kilometer radius. Wi-fi network is available at all departments, canteen, hostels. Since five years, this is the first time, the website has been tampered,” he said.

According to the police, the wi-fi facility can be used by all those who enter the university campus and thus the chances of misuse are high. Though the wi-fi facility was launched five years ago, the varsity has not done its audit at least once, said a police officer, who prefered anonymity.

The police suspect that the website might have been hacked on August 28 midnight and the police have sought the IP address, login ID and other details.