Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Education

First Advisor

T. Gregory Barrett

Abstract

Network security has become a growing challenge in industry and education. With the increase of viruses, spam, hackers, and identity theft, organizations are beginning to look at areas to improve the protection of their Information Technology structure. Higher Education has the highest vulnerability to network security threats especially the two-year institutions. Two-year institutions are known for open access admission. Open labs, limited staff and resources hinder security measures for these institutions. This thesis focuses on the two-year institution delving into the Information Technology Departments and how security is handled. What challenges have these institutions faced trying to protect data and the network infrastructure? Seven states were involved in this research: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Results generated from fifty two institutions indicate that network security has become a priority over the past two-to-three years. However, challenges that still hamper proper security include lack of staff, lack of funding, and lack of upper management support. With the increase of security attacks throughout the world on Information Technology, two-year institutions are fighting those attacks with limited resources.

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