Community colleges aren't quite as high on the list of hackers and scammers as institutions like banks, hospitals and four-year research universities, yet the institutional and personal data stored on their servers and in the online cloud can be valuable, so they need to lock down their data like any other entity. This requires a combination of…

Analyzes the impact of the U.S. Patriot Act on educational institutions, particularly in the area of information technology security. Warns that the Act could impact distance learning and campus Internet service providers, and that lawsuits are being filed against universities for having lax cybersecurity. Makes suggestions for dealing with these…