IT to upgrade Wi-fi access points this summer

By Francisco Omar Fernandez Rodriguez

Editorial Staff

The Information Technology Services department is well known for helping those with device problems, but they also work on Wi-fi connection and cybersecurity.

IT is preparing to upgrade the access points around campus this summer, according to Information Security Officer Corey Hobbs.

An access point expands a wireless network’s connection, allowing a large number of users to connect to an organization’s Wi-fi at once. Some access points also provide advanced security and help run guest-wifi services.

By keeping the access points up-to-date, IT maintains Wi-fi connection across campus.

IT is in the process of ordering new equipment for this update, he said.

Executive Director of Infrastructure and Operations Mike Zinkus said the University has 1,100 access points across campus.

They are located “from offices to classrooms to residence halls. Those are effectively the way that someone’s computer, tablet, phone, connects to the network, and those get routed back to central controllers,” Zinkus said.

Around 500 of those access points are old enough to be replaced, based on the five-year replacement cycle the University uses, he said.

“We have money allocated to hardware replacements every year, so that’s a continuous cycle,” Zinkus said.

He said bandwidth used to be directed to specific locations, such as academic buildings during the day, but over the past 10 years, bandwidth has become more available.

“I don’t think we’re in that state anymore because bandwidth is cheaper and much more available than it used to be,” Zinkus said.

Hobbs agreed that there should be enough bandwidth.

“At this time, there is currently no process or need to limit network resources and bandwidth to a certain part of the campus at any point during the day,” Hobbs said.

IT also keeps an eye on the University’s cybersecurity.

The University has an information security plan and a series of policies that are updated yearly, Hobbs said.

The security program covers several topics, “ranging from technical controls, to training, to personnel controls, to various arrays of other things we do to try to prevent any form of cybersecurity incident,” he said.

The system is “as up-to-date as we can make it,” he said.

Cybersecurity has to constantly update because threats continue to evolve, he said.

“The people who are looking to gain - malicious actors looking to gain advantage over us - are not taking any rests,” Hobbs said.

Zinkus said phishing is a notable problem.

“The big things right now, as far as email, are phishing, which is a general request to try to get something from somebody, whether it be their email or their password,” Zinkus said.

The newest method is “spear phishing,” which targets specific people in an organization, he said.

Hobbs said students in particular are good at reporting phishing.

“Students, specifically, I’ll say, because I’m the one who reads them, are very good at reporting when they get phishing emails and spam emails,” Hobbs said.

A generative AI program, such as Copilot or Gemini, can find the highest-ranking people in an organization in less than a minute, he said.

Zinkus said the two-step authentication that applications like Canvas and Microsoft require is industry standard.

An extra step, such as “a text message with a code - that makes it so much harder for somebody somewhere else in the world to try and pretend to be you or someone else,” he said.

Hobbs said the cybersecurity training for students is divided into two different areas.

“Student training is broken into two groups: a mandatory training for student employees, and a voluntary one (both having similar content) that’s made available to all students,” Hobbs said.

Sophomore pre-med major Abdallah Mohamed, who works at the IT desk, said it is important for everyone to be caught up on their cybersecurity training so they can identify threats.

Freshman psychology major Danya Duvert, who works at the library front desk, said she was required to complete cybersecurity training both before and during the job.

Sophomore geospatial and data analysis major Alex Povoa said he likes that the University uses an authenticator because it helps protect against malware. 

Junior finance major Yair Rachmany said learning to recognize phishing emails is important.

He said, “I have gotten a lot of phishing emails over the past year, and I always report my phishing emails and I learned how to identify those emails through these cybersecurity trainings.”

Sophomore English major Angel Marin-Caceres said being informed about cybersecurity is important because “hacking is really easy nowadays.”