According to a report released by an education-technology consortium, technology networks at many institutions of higher education continue to be vulnerable to attacks by viruses and hackers, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. However, according to Phil Fitz, the College's director of information technology, the College will not make any changes.

The Chronicle reported users may forget to log off a secure network once they are done with a computer, leaving the network vulnerable to attacks. The College will not force log-offs. "To log [individual] systems off might force them to lose information," Fitz said.

According to The Chronicle, the report indicated that many schools have no mechanisms for coping with problems like the past summer's wave of viruses and worms.

"Half of the institutions didn't have a formal disaster-recovery plan," Robert Kvavik, author of the report and the chief technology officer of the technology-consulting company Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, told The Chronicle. According to Fitz, the College has a formal disaster recovery plan in place, but there has never been a need to use it.

Fitz remarked that the only way for viruses to enter the network at the College is for someone to get a virus at home and then plug their computer into the network at the College.

Fitz is satisfied with Internet security at the College. "The steps that we've taken seem to be doing a good job of keeping things clean," he said.