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by JENNY CALLISON photo by TERAH HOOBLER
ULKU CLARK, a professor of management information systems in UNCW’s Cameron School of Business, is a cyber defense warrior. Educated both in her native Turkey and in the U.S., she has studied information technology and management information systems. She was instrumental in establishing University of North Carolina Wilmington as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education, a designation that will help students compete for federal and private cyber security jobs. CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND CYBERSECURITY? “Where MIS is focused on how people, technology, and organizations interact and interrelate, cybersecurity in the MIS context is concerned with having people … trained to choose good passwords, recognize phishing emails, understand how to report cybersecurity incidents, etc. It’s also about ensuring that technology is correctly emplaced, configured, maintained, etc.; and that organizations have sound policies and procedures related to the securing of information systems and the secure use of those systems by people.” WHAT IS UNCW DOING TO HELP GROW CYBERSECURITY? “There is a fairly universally recognized gap of about 600,000 between the size of the current cybersecurity workforce and what’s needed. To help grow the cybersecurity workforce, UNCW has been increasing the number of education path offerings over the past few years and they now stand at five: an Information Technology major with Cybersecurity Concentration – this curriculum path is related to UNCW’s designation by NSA/DHS as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense; a Computer Science major with Security Concentration; a Cybersecurity minor – open to all UNCW majors; an MBA with Cybersecurity Specialization; and a Cybersecurity major (that begins next fall).” THE CYBERSECURITY PROGRAM PULLS FROM BOTH UNCW’S COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS CURRICULA. HOW DOES THIS CROSS-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH WORK IN PRACTICE IN THIS PROGRAM? “We have a number of hybrid programs offered by CS and Information Systems (IS) faculty. In the undergraduate level IT and cybersecurity majors, and in the graduate level MSCSIS programs are examples of the CS and IS faculty collaboration. In these programs, the courses taught by CS faculty focus on technical aspects while the courses taught by IS faculty focus on managerial aspects.” WHAT TRENDS IN THE CYBERSECURITY INDUSTRY ARE YOU SEEING? “Ransomware has been a major issue for small- and medium-sized businesses in the past years, and unfortunately continues to be a big threat. The increased adoption of cloud (technology) will lead to more attacks towards the cloud. More than 98% of U.S. businesses are small and medium sized. With limited or no security measures, they are easy targets for attackers. Through the breaches of these businesses, there will be more supply chain attacks. With the increased population of smart cars, we expect more attacks towards the automotive industry.” WHAT ARE MISTAKES INDIVIDUALS AND/OR BUSINESSES MAKE WITH REGARD TO KEEPING THEIR DATA SECURE? “The most important mistake might be approaching the operation of a digital device too casually; everyone really needs to develop a security mindset. Use multi-factor authentication whenever possible; do not reuse the same username/password combination across multiple accounts. Understand and apply the guidance of length equals strength when it comes to passwords. Every clickable link presents risk – don’t click unless you know where it goes.”W ULKU CLARK’s full profile will appear in an upcoming WILMA Roundup email. To sign up for daily WILMA emails, go to WILMAmag.com.
WILMAmag.com
JANUARY 2022
WILMA
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