Cyber Response

An annual cybersecurity inspection by the University of Kentucky recently revealed vulnerability in a server associated with a College of Education database. The database did not contain financial, health or social security information, limiting the potential of identity theft of any kind.  

The database is part of a free resource program known as the Digital Driver’s License for training and test-taking used by K-12 schools and colleges in Kentucky and other states.  

The database contained the names and email addresses of students and teachers in Kentucky and in all 50 states and 22 foreign countries. UK officials have notified the impacted school districts and informed the appropriate legal and regulatory authorities. 

Additional security measures being taken include: 

• The server in question will be repaired and be taken into UK’s centralized computing and server system. 
• The College’s Information Technology staff will report into the university’s central IT organization -- UK Information Technology Services (UK ITS). 
• UK Internal Audit, in collaboration with UK ITS, will accelerate its planned security reviews on cybersecurity practices in colleges, units and departments across the UK enterprise to identify cybersecurity risks for mitigation. 
• Additional investments will continue to be made to enhance cybersecurity efforts at UK in the coming years. 
• UK has invested more than $13 million on cybersecurity in the last 5 years alone. 

Recent and upcoming measures include: 

• Search in the coming year for a new position of Enterprise Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). 
• Adding multi-factor authentication for all critical systems, including VPN and email. 
• Implementing next-generation firewalls at the edge of UK’s systems to mitigate potential security events. 
• Instituting rapid patching of critical severity vulnerabilities for internet-facing mission critical systems. 
• Adding cloud disaster recovery for myUK, the institution’s enterprise resource planning platform. 
• Automating deprovisioning of accounts for students and employees who have left the university. 
• Rolling out modern endpoint protection to combat threats such as malware, ransomware, and phishing scams. 

Any questions can be directed to 859-562-3098 or Toll Free: 833-510-0030 from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday-Friday or cyberresponse@uky.edu