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Security Lessons From Higher Education

Written by Evan Schuman
June 5th, 2008
GuestView Columnist David Taylor asks: What would you do if one of your employees decided to leverage your brand and set up a little side business inside your store, including selling products via an E-Commerce Web site, setting up a merchant bank account and taking credit cards? You'd probably fire the person, right? But, what if you couldn't? And what if groups of employees started their own businesses, leveraging your brand, on your property, but forgot to tell you about it? Chaos would ensue, right? Well, that is what it's like for Treasury organizations at major academic institutions, where security and finance professions are faced with managing small "cities" with hundreds of "independently minded" individuals and groups who often see no need to inform "corporate" of their desire to start up a business. There are several critical lessons that can be learned from the experience of securing E-Commerce in higher education.

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Posted in Payment Systems, Premium Content, Security/Fraud
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