Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59881
SUCCESS (suc*cess") U.S. News & World Report has ranked Babson #1 in Entrepreneurship for the 11th straight year. Our success has everything to do with our position as thought leaders who advance entrepreneurial management practice and theory. At Babson, we're defining the future of business education—today. WWW. B ABSON . EDU / M BA I NNOVA TION I S O UR T RADITION [n. The accomplishment of goals necessary to achieve a particular task, realize a particular dream or satisfy a particular need or want. The outcome of effort. From the Latin successus— to succeed.] Teaching Ethical Hacking Computer hackers, who seek out vulnerabilities in computer systems to harvest valu- able data such as credit card informa- tion, are believed to cost global busi- ness billions of dollars annually. A recent study by Good Harbor Con- sulting, a firm based in Virginia, found that corporations now spend up to 12 percent of their technology budgets on security, up from 3 per- cent only five years go. In response to this trend, some graduate stu- dents at the University of North Carolina at Char- lotte want to learn to beat hackers at their own game. In a course called Vulnerability Assessment and System Assurance, of- fered through UNCC's College of Information Sciences, students will learn how to defend and secure a computer net- work. They will also learn the secrets to hacking into almost any system from some of the most talented—and benevolent—hackers in the world. As "ethical hackers," students also will learn the legal and ethical considera- tions that arise in cybersecurity. The course is modeled after pro- D ATA B I T Cybersecurity is becoming a big business. In a recent study, Computer Security In- stitute (CSI) projects that the number of jobs in cybersecu- rity will grow at an annual compounded rate of 14 per- cent until 2008. It also esti- mates that by 2008 the number of cybersecurity pro- fessionals will be 2.1 million, up from today's 1.3 million. grams offered primarily by military institutes, says Bill Chu, the profes- sor of information technology lead- ing the course. "This particular course will expose our students to dark-side techniques. They'll gain insight on how bad guys can penetrate systems and they'll learn how to effectively protect those systems," says Chu. "We're teaching them to think like the bad guys. They're learning a differ- ent mindset." The course follows a case-study format and in- cludes a strong lab com- ponent. In addition, students must sign a legal agreement, which states that they will not misuse or reveal any of the tactics they learn. As "white hat" hackers, these stu- dents may perform a valuable service to industry. Companies are paying such hackers to examine their systems and identify any security weaknesses before "black hat" hackers have a chance to access sensitive information. Making Dot-Coms History Researchers at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business in College Park have received a $235,000 award from the U.S. Library of Congress. The goal is to strengthen a two-year-old initiative to preserve records from the now- historic dot-com era of the late 1990s. The award will be supplemented by $245,000 in contributions from the project's partners, which include the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University in Fair- BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 49