cyber security

Facebook is turning to Harvard for help with solving a technical problem - how to keep foreign hackers at bay.

On college campuses across the country, a growing challenge is cyber security. That's because colleges and universities tend to have open networks containing lots of information, making them vulnerable targets. Despite repeated warnings, colleges aren't adapting quickly enough to today's threats.

From UMass Boston to Vermont’s Champlain College, institutes of higher education are trying to boost the number of graduates in a field that barely existed ten years ago: cyber security. And colleges and universities are scrambling to keep up with increased cyber security threats.

Hackers have stolen the personal information of  students, faculty, staff and alumni from the University of Maryland. The university says hackers seized Social Security numbers of 309,079 people, and the cause of the security breach is under investigation. This comes as security experts worry future cyber attacks are increasingly likely to come through college and university networks.

First there was Target. Then high-end retailer Neiman Marcus. Now, security experts say future cyber attacks are likely to come through college and university networks — networks that tend to have big, broad Internet pipes, with less protection.