Kategorie: ‘IT-Security’
Increased Cyber Security at RWTH Through MFA Introduction
Source: Freepik
Universities are increasingly becoming the target of cyber attacks. According to the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the current threat level is higher than ever before [1]. In view of this growing threat and the increasing number of corresponding attacks, the Ministry of Culture and Science (MKW) of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) published an Agreement on Cyber Security at Universities (VzC) at the end of 2023. With a total of 12 measures, this serves as a basis for securing university networks. At the same time, the BSI regularly recommends targeted measures to defend against threats.
Against this backdrop, the specific protection of RWTH Aachen University’s IT infrastructure is increasingly indispensable.
Ethical Hacking: Hacking for More Security
Source: Freepik
Imagine you let someone deliberately try to break into your house to test your security system. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? But that’s exactly what ethical hackers do in the digital space. They try to break into systems – with permission, of course – to uncover security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by criminals. In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about ethical hacking, the important role it plays in IT security and how it is used in practice.
Help, My Email Password Was Compromised!
Source: Freepik
In the digital world, email accounts are a central part of our lives. If your email password has been compromised, it can have serious consequences: A hacked email account gives cybercriminals the opportunity to send phishing emails with fraudulent links to your family members, friends and addressees in your name.
In this article, you will learn how you can better protect your accounts and devices to prevent them from being compromised.
Archer: Error Detection for HPC
Source: Pruners Github
The world of high-performance computing is developing rapidly and computing capacities are reaching new heights. In this context, tools for error detection and correction are essential to ensure the reliability of applications. One such tool is Archer, which was specially developed to detect data races in OpenMP programmes.
Exam Scan – Digital Inspection
Source: Own Illustration
Digital inspections offer a number of advantages: They save resources by reducing the use of staff, students can participate remotely and receive a copy of the exam without additional effort, which they are allowed to request in accordance with the Higher Education Act in NRW.
In order to be able to use these advantages for paper pencil exams, the IT Center, CLS and the Chair of Controlling at RWTH Aachen University have developed Exam Scan, a Moodle plugin that prepares such exams for digital viewing.
ZKI – From Project to Working Group
Source: Pixabay
As a partner, the IT Center actively supports the design of digitalisation processes at RWTH Aachen University. This also includes the use of cloud services and the correspondingly increasing needs of teaching staff, researchers and students at RWTH Aachen University. The flexibility and scalability of cloud services can be a means of meeting the ever more rapidly changing IT requirements of users.
Information for Employees – Security of Webex
Source: Freepik
The communication and collaboration tool Webex has been in use at RWTH Aachen University since November 2023. This is currently being criticized due to security incidents (German only).
As IT security is a very high priority for RWTH, the issue is being taken very seriously by both the IT Center as a whole and the relevant specialist department.
Following discussions with the manufacturer Cisco and our own intensive investigation, we were able to establish that RWTH and its Webex users are not affected by the security incidents.
The necessary security precautions had already been implemented at RWTH before Webex was introduced.
The Importance of Open Source Software
Source: Freepik
Open source software (OSS) has become a cornerstone of modern IT and plays a crucial role in the development of technology and software. Open source code enables innovation, flexibility and cost efficiency.
But what exactly is open source software and why is it so important?
Secure Access to the Institute VPN at RWTH Aachen University
Source: Own illustration
In order to be able to access the RWTH network from anywhere in a secure, encrypted way, the academic institutions of RWTH Aachen University can provide a VPN instance to a restricted group of people if required. This allows users to securely access their resources at their institution. As part of the introduction of multi-factor authentication at RWTH, the security requirements for these VPN instances have increased.
There are various options for managing and enabling VPN access, which we would like to introduce to you in the following blog post.
Ethical Decision-Making in IT
Source: Freepik
From automated decision-making to data protection and privacy issues, technological developments have a significant impact on society. Today, information and communication technologies have become a matter of course and indispensable in all areas of life. Ethics has long been an issue in business and the world of IT is also increasingly concerned with moral issues. In the context of artificial intelligence (AI) in particular, such conflicts are becoming increasingly prominent. In today’s blog post, we want to shed light on ethical influences in the IT sector.
