New security coordinator is named at CIT

Kevin Lee Unrue, a former corporate security consultant, has been appointed security coordinator for Cornell's Office of Information Technologies. The appointment was announced last week by Polley McClure, vice president for information technologies, and Unrue moved into his office May 24.

Unrue will oversee the security of the university's computers, networks and data. Most recently, he has been with the consulting firm EDS Corporate Security in Texas, managing the team responsible for the EDS global infrastructure, which serves over 120,000 employees in 51 countries with connectivity to over 9,000 customer networks.

"Cornell is extraordinarily fortunate to have Kevin," said Steve Worona, assistant to the vice president for information technologies. "He has the energy, vision and skills that are needed to solve the problems of network security faced by the university. He is the right person to move Cornell forward.

"There is a universal shortage of highly-qualified computer and network experts, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that we're hiring people from off campus," Worona added. "What's different and nearly unique about Kevin is that he's coming from a part of the private sector that looks remarkably like higher education. We have needs for both highly restricted access for administrative systems and a high degree of openness for research collaboration. This is not the norm in the private sector, but it's exactly the type of environment Kevin has worked with in EDS."

Worona noted that the need for better campus security is very real. Every day, he said, there are off-campus attempts to break into Cornell's networks and computers. "As the Internet has become more widespread and in particular international, and as hacker tools have become more available, incidents of intrusions are becoming more frequent," he explained. The incidence of break-in attempts being launched from the university's networks to other sites is also on the rise, he added.

"I'm excited about the tremendous opportunity I have to work with the obvious talents at Cornell and contribute to developing a comprehensive security program," Unrue said. "I'm also thrilled to be coming to this area."

Unrue succeeds Barbara Skoblick, who took a position with the University Audit Office in February 1998. Since then, security concerns have been handled by an informal group of technical experts from several departments.