Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives

Skype?


From: "Clark, Sean" <Sean.Clark () UCDENVER EDU>
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 09:29:35 -0700

We are trying to gather info on how our peer institutions are handling Skype on their networks.  The two biggest 
concerns that we have are the security risks associated with Skype and how universities are handling funding for the 
increased Internet bandwidth associated with Skype, since Skype is essentially transferring costs from long distance 
carrier expenditures to expenses associated with Internet bandwidth usage.

Since we are a large university that includes a health sciences center (with all of the security concerns that come 
with handling private data such as PHI) I'm open to feedback from all universities, but particularly interested in 
those institutions that have health sciences centers.

Specific questions

Do you work for a university?

If you work for a university, does that university have a health sciences center?

Are you blocking Skype?

If you are not blocking Skype, how are you handling the security concerns associates with Skype?

If you are not blocking Skype, have you addressed the increased network bandwidth costs, or are you just eating the 
extra bandwidth?

Other discussion, thoughts and responses are, of course, encouraged, but the above information would be particularly 
useful for me in preparation for the questions that I foresee coming from our upper management in the near future.

Thank you.

Sean Clark
Manager, IT Security/Email/UNIX Systems
UCDenver IT Services
Sean.Clark () UCDenver edu

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