Individual Project

By
Sandeep Lohithakshan
Student Number: 0584171
University of Oxford
Oxford is one of most reputed universities in the world, situated in London. There are over
20,000 students at Oxford, including 11,765 undergraduates and 8,701 postgraduates. A high
percentage of staff are citizens of foreign countries. Oxford also has one of the lowest drop-out
rates in the UK: figures published in Spring 2010 by the Higher Education Statistics Agency
(HESA) show that only 1 per cent of Oxford students dropped out, compared with the national
average of 7.2 per cent.

Oxford University hacking incident

There was one international student. In past he did graduation in security management. He
knows about hacking and breaking passwords because of his earlier studies. It’s his first year in
Oxford University for masters of security. His first year exams were approaching and he hadn’t
prepared for exams and for achieving good marks. He started deep search on university site and
started hacking site and after few days he got successful to break internal securities and copied
all questions few days before exams.

Few months ago, there were another group of x-students which were expelled out from
university because of their bad records. To take revenge they hacked college site with help of
professional hackers and took whole usernames and passwords of alumni people and posted it
on university website and emailed to every student of university. By this university had lost its
some reputation.

As a result of recent incidents, university wants to tackle all these incidents and wants to regain
its reputation. And make sure to all students and alumni of university that this thing will never
happen again.

Note: Oxford University exists in reality, one of the largest universities in the world. The
scenario is fictitious, however a real possible threat
Summary
It was very unfortunate that the incident has occurred in very reputed university such as
this. Now that we are done with it, it’s important that we give a ‘post-mortem’ report to
understand what possibly went wrong.

Since many students were able to hack into the systems, a possible threat was that the
system could have had weak passwords, or the antivirus system installed was not
updated or genuine. Firewalls could have been improper.

Another threat that the university will face is the reputation. The University will have to
find ways to deal with this.

Solutions? Needless to say, the Oxford University will have to improve its security
system. System passwords will have to be strengthened. The antivirus softwares will
have to be properly updated. Firewalls should be strong. All of these will have to be
properly tested and improved. The Oxford University will also have find out ways to
manage the media.

SWOT Analysis
Strengths

Oxford University has a world-class reputation for academic excellence.

College life is one of the University’s greatest assets.

Student Life

There are over 20,000 students at Oxford, including 11,765 undergraduates and
8,701 postgraduates.

Oxford has one of the lowest drop-out rates in the UK.

Undergraduate courses

Over 17,000 people applied for an undergraduate place for entry in 2010, an increase of 12 per
cent on the previous year.

Applications from state school candidates for undergraduate places have risen by 85 per cent
over the last ten years, and from independent school candidates by 68 per cent. The number of
places available has remained roughly the same.
Oxford receives, on average, five applications for each available place.

98.6 per cent of those taking A-levels who enter the University achieve grades of AAA or better.

The collegiate University conducts more than 24,000 interviews for around 10,500 applicants
over the two-week interview period in December.

International

Oxford Colleges

The collegiate system is at the heart of the University’s success, giving students and academics
the benefits of belonging to both a large, internationally renowned institution and to a small,
interdisciplinary academic community.

Colleges bring together leading academics and students across subjects and year groups, and
from different cultures and countries.

The relatively small number of students at each college allows for close and supportive personal
attention to be given to the induction, academic development and welfare of individual students.

Oxford Research

Oxford's research activity involves more than 70 departments, the colleges, over 1,600 academic
staff, more than 3,500 research and research support staff, and over 4,600 graduate research
students. 

Oxford has more world-leading academics (rated 4* in the 2008 national Research Assessment
Exercise) than any other UK university. Oxford also has the highest number of world-leading or
internationally excellent (4* or 3*) academics in the UK.

At graduate level, 58 per cent of students are studying for a higher degree by research.

External research grants and contracts continue to be the University’s largest source of income.
In 2008-9, 40 per cent (£340.5 million) of income came from external research sponsors.

Research income has doubled in the last five years and grew by almost 20 per cent between 2008
and 2009 alone.

Oxford consistently has the highest research income from external sponsors of any UK
university.

The number of research grants and contracts won in 2008-9 reached over 1,900.
Oxford, through Isis Innovation Limited, our wholly owned technology transfer company,
pioneered the successful commercial exploitation of academic research and invention. It has
created 65 companies since 1997 and files, on average, one patent application each week.

In the year to March 2009, Isis Innovation's trading turnover increased from £4.8 million to £5.6
million, four new spin-out companies were created and the number of new consultancy
agreements almost doubled to 151.

Oxford Awards and Rankings

Oxford’s academic community includes 80 Fellows of the Royal Society and 100 Fellows of the
British Academy.

In 2010, eight Oxford professors were elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy.

In 2010, four Oxford professors were elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

In 2010, four Oxford professors were elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical
Sciences.

The successes of Oxford’s academics are recognised regularly in the award of prestigious
international prizes, such as the Gairdner Award for medical research, awarded in 2010 to
Professor Peter Ratcliffe and Professor Nick White; the International Balzan Prize, awarded to
Professor Terence Cave in 2009; the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, given to Professor Peter
Ratcliffe in 2009; the Royal Society's Copley Medal, awarded in 2008 to Professor Sir Roger
Penrose; the Gairdner Award for medical research, bestowed in 2007 on Professor Kim
Nasmyth; and a Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, won in 2005 by Professor Sir Ed
Southern.

Oxford University has won seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher Education, more than
any other university. The prizes were awarded to: the University's museums, libraries and
archives (2009); the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography at Oxford University Press
(2007), the Clinical Trial Service Unit (2005), the Refugee Studies Centre (2002), the Centre for
Clinical Vaccinology & Tropical Medicine (2000), the Weatherall Institute of Molecular
Medicine (1996), and Isis Innovation Ltd (1994).

Oxford was ranked joint fifth in the world in the Times Higher Education Supplement’s World
University Rankings 2009. In the disciplinary tables, Oxford was ranked second in the world in
art and humanities and in life sciences and biomedicine; third in the social sciences; fifth in the
natural sciences; and eleventh in engineering and information technology.

Oxford is repeatedly ranked in the top ten of universities worldwide in the annual tables
compiled by Shanghai Jiaotong University.
In June 2010, the annual Times Good University Guide named Oxford Britain’s top university
for the ninth year running.

In May 2010, Oxford University topped The Guardian’s UK rankings for the sixth consecutive
year.

In May 2010, Oxford topped The Independent's league table for the eighth time in nine years.

In September 2009, Oxford University was ranked first in the UK by the annual Sunday Times
Good University Guide, completing a clean sweep of British national newspaper league tables
for 2009. The Sunday Times also named Oxford University of the Year.  

In the Financial Times Global Rankings (Jan 2010), the Saïd Business School's MBA
programme was ranked 16th in the world and second in the UK. The Saïd Business School is
also ranked in the top 20 European Business Schools (Dec 2009) and in the top 20 MBA
programmes in the world (Jan 2009) by the Financial Times; the top 10 business schools outside
the USA by Business Week (Nov 2009) and the top 15 accelerated MBA programmes worldwide
by the Wall Street Journal (Sep 2009).

Museums, Collections and Libraries

Oxford has the largest university library system in the UK, with over 100 libraries.

The Bodleian Libraries, which manage most of the main University libraries, hold over 11
million printed items and vast quantities of materials in many other formats, on shelving
measuring more than 250 kilometres.

The Bodleian Library, the University’s main research library, dates from 1602 and is globally
acknowledged to be one of the greatest libraries in the world. Its priceless collections include the
papers of six British Prime Ministers; a Gutenberg Bible; the earliest surviving book written
wholly in English; a quarter of the world’s original copies of the Magna Carta; and almost
10,000 western medieval and renaissance manuscripts.

Weaknesses

Such a reputed college such as this would naturally have fewer weaknesses. Oxford University
has poor security systems. Computer systems have weak passwords. The antivirus softwares
have weak passwords. The systems also don’t have proper firewalls.

Opportunities

Tutorials
In tutorials our undergraduates meet their tutor alone or with one or two other students, meaning
greater personal attention and the tailoring of learning to meet students' individual needs.
Tutorials foster the skills of hard work, self motivation, and confidence. They also foster the
ability to process and synthesise large amounts of material, subject-specific skills of research and
argument, and the ability to write coherently and under time pressure.

Researching and writing essays, or preparing solutions to set problems, for discussion with the
tutor requires self-motivation and excellent time management. Unlike lectures, or even group
seminars, there is nowhere to hide. Ideas are subjected to close scrutiny and challenge.

The tutorial is a unique opportunity to discover what an individual undergraduate doesn’t yet
know – to determine how far their understanding extends, or where they might be making a
crucial mistake – and to respond accordingly.

The college tutor provides continuity of guidance and support throughout a student's degree.

“Oxford teaches you to have the courage to stand up for your ideas and the humility to back
down when proven wrong. You are taught not just the subject matter, but how to present,
persuade and explain. It's a personalised, world-class education.”

World Class Education

Students learn how to think for themselves, formulate and defend arguments and accept
constructive criticism – skills which are highly valued by employers. “Oxford teaches you to
have the courage to stand up for your ideas and the humility to back down when proven wrong.
You are taught not just the subject matter, but how to present, persuade and explain. It's a
personalised, world-class education.”

Students are taught by academic leaders in their field.

Forty per cent of our academic staff are citizens of foreign countries. 

Our academic staff come from almost 100 different countries and territories. The largest groups
of international academic staff are from the USA, Germany, Italy, China, Australia, France,
Ireland, India and Canada.

Over a third of our total student body - more than 7,500 students - are citizens of foreign
countries, including 15 per cent of undergraduates and 61 per cent of graduate students.

Students come to Oxford from 145 countries and territories. The largest groups of international
students come from the USA (1,397), China and Hong Kong (732), Germany (695), Canada
(378), India (320), Australia (261), Italy (210), Ireland (194), France (192), and Singapore (163).

Oxford has more than a dozen centres and institutes specialising in the study of specific countries
and regions.
Oxford is the leading centre for the study of China in Europe and has one of the top five
departments in the world in Japanese Studies.

Oxford is one of the leading centres for the study of globalisation, through the James Martin 21st
Century School, the Programme on Global Economic Governance, the Oxford Department of
International Development (which created the world’s first refugee studies programme), and our
global health programmes.

Oxford’s Centre for Tropical Medicine conducts cutting edge research at its laboratories in
Kenya, Vietnam and Thailand.

Oxford boasts one of the most extensive global alumni networks in the world, with more than
170 groups in over 60 countries.

Oxford University Press (OUP), publisher of the famous dictionaries and a department of the
University, is the world’s largest university press. It has offices in more than 50 countries, and
almost 5,000 employees worldwide.

In China alone, 14 million school children use Oxford books every year, and internationally
around 16 million children use Oxford ELT materials to learn English.

Threats

Due to poor security systems, there is a risk of a black hats or unauthorized users accessing the
computer systems. Also the poor antivirus systems and firewalls give a high probability of
unwanted data entering the systems.

Oxford University also will have to manage faulty media reports in the case of disasters to keep
its reputation secure.

Business impact Analysis

Recognition

Risk assessment

 Risk to reputation

False reports from the media could keep the reputation of the university at risk.

 Risks to input

Number of applicants for the next academic intake and also the number of applicants for job
postings could decline.

 Risk because of business tools

 Due to poor antivirus systems, vital data could be lost.

Classification

External research grants and contracts continue to be the University’s largest source of income.
In 2008-9, 40 per cent (£340.5 million) of income came from external research sponsors.

In 2008-9 40 per cent (£340.5 million) of total income was derived from external research
sponsors.

Of the remaining income, 23 per cent came from grants from the Higher Education Funding
Council for England and the Teaching and Development Agency; 14 per cent from academic
fees; and 23 per cent from other sources including trading activities and investments.

In May 2008 Oxford launched the biggest fund-raising campaign ever by a European university,
aiming to raise at least £1.25 billion. Over £883 million of this total has now been raised.

There is non-participation of ICT in the ownership

Politics

Oxford University set itself on a collision course with the government by warning that it could be
worse off if ministers adopted the proposals of an inquiry into university funding.

Labour and the Conservatives commissioned the year-long independent review to examine ways
to ensure English universities had enough money to “secure their vitality” in the future.

Top universities had warned that the status quo was not viable. The review, led by former BP
chief executive Lord Browne, was published earlier and recommended that tuition fees –
currently capped at £3,290 – should be able to rise to as much as £12,000. The government
broadly supports Browne’s proposals, but wants to cap fees at less than £12,000.

In a letter posted on Oxford’s website, vice-chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton, warned that
the 800-year-old institution could face a shortfall. Hamilton said a steep rise in tuition fees may
not offset cuts to the higher education budget, down from £7.1bn to £4.2bn. The government has
promised cuts to teaching budgets, but will not state how deep these will be until around
Christmas.
Application

Costing

Cost of Downtime & Return on Investment

Total University expenditure in 2008–9 was £852 million.

Oxford spends about 14% of its income every year for technological recovery.

Oxford spent 31 per cent of its additional fee income in 2008-9 on bursaries and scholarships for
lower income students, in comparison with a sector average of 25.8 per cent.

Oxford spends over £2.8m each year on outreach activities, in addition to money spent on

bursaries, bringing its total spend on outreach to nearly £8 million, one of the highest in the
country.

Over £12 million is awarded to graduate students each year through central University
scholarship schemes. A further 400 graduate scholarships are offered by colleges, departments,
and faculties.

Timeline

The University needs to find a long term solution to the secuirity problems. The university
should take quick action on the issue.

Fit

The University has a site licence for the Sophos anti-virus client which is available for MS
Windows Vista/XP/2000, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux. Members of the University can install
the Sophos client on a personal computer at no cost

Owners of computers connected to the University network are responsible for the installation and
maintenance of up-to-date anti-virus software. Virus-infected computers can be barred from
using the University network.

Implementation

Computers that are not fully updated are much more at risk of being infected with computer
viruses and other unwanted software. Infected computers pose a risk to the University and are
therefore likely to be disconnected from the University Network. The University Security Team
dealt with around 1500 infected computers, of which around half were designed to steal personal
data, banking details and passwords.
Testing

The Oxford University follows the best way to check the usability/accessibility of the software
which is to carry out some form of end-user testing throughout its various development stages.
Testing is also done to prevent any errors or faults and declare the product fit for use. Refresh is
carried out. The alternatives should be reviewed and regularly.

Duration

The whole process would carry on as long as the new product is available. Once the product is
tested and declared fit for use, it is considered available. The time taken would depend from
product to product.

Disaster Avoidance Planning (DAP)

The University has a decent ratio of DAP/DRP. A proper method to maintain critical data is to
keep back-up which could be useful in case of loss of data. External drives should be used to
store important data in case of emergency, particularly for static data as it would not be required
to change. It would also be useful to do routine cleaning process of hardware and software data
so that it is well kept. Planning should also be done for upgrades of applications. Students and
Employees should be able to manage at the time of a disaster. Mock training sessions should be
conducted.

Multimedia
Cyber Defense and Disaster Recovery Conference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW4W2x3P_VU

References:
http://www.ox.ac.uk/

http://news.icm.ac.uk/education/oxford-university-on-collision-course-with-government-over-
funding/8614/