Since computers were first introduced in the 1960s, society has experienced a multitude of technical advances. But in recent years, universities, corporations and many individual users have been introduced to the darker side of the computer age.
Duke, with a network that supports thousands of users and stores masses of information, has also fallen prey to the skills of hackers.
One recent attack on Duke servers occurred this past summer when hackers crashed servers at the Pratt School of Engineering. Frequent e-mail-based incidents, including the Mytob e-mail virus that flooded inboxes last weekend, appear to be direct attacks aimed at the University.
In an unrelated incident, hackers tapped into Duke University Health System's websites to access potentially sensitive information last May.
The DUHS website attack compromised 5,500 users' passwords and more than 8,000 fragments of social security numbers. In response, the Duke University Police Department and other authorities investigated the situation, but have yet to make any arrests associated with the crime.
University officials noted, however, that such an avid pursuit will not be used to catch hackers who commit lesser crimes, such as the diversion of bandwidth via Duke computers.
"If someone keys your car, will you call the FBI?" said Christopher Cramer, information technology security officer at Duke's Office of Information Technology. "The decision [to pursue a case] is made by a variety of people and depends on the severity of the issue at hand."
Duke officials said they have responded to the successful hackers by creating "smarter systems" and enhancing security measures. Current policies include avoiding the use of social security numbers unless absolutely necessary, preventing hackers from gaining sensitive information.
Despite such improvements, University officials said hackers can still breach security measures. Infiltrations that pose serious enough threats to trigger investigations have the potential to expose confidential information, Cramer said. He added that few incidents have posed as high a threat as the DUHS attack.
But many investigations-at times involving collaboration with the FBI-are unsuccessful. Colleges seeking the sources of viruses often find more victims than perpetrators.
"When I think of 1995 versus 2005, a major difference among [hacking] capabilities is the speed," said John Board, an associate professor for Pratt. "Ten years ago, hackers were often and more easily caught largely because viruses spread too slowly to leave a long trail."
In recent years, the trend to stay incessantly connected using high-speed internet capabilities has opened up more points of vulnerability.
Today's hackers are more likely to destroy log records and launch viruses from other peoples' computers. In most cases, combinations of such hacking maneuvers makes identifying perpetrators virtually impossible, said Rafael Rodriguez, associate chief information officer for infrastructure and networking support.
"The bulk [of viruses that impact DUHS] have been indirect attacks aimed to spark random disruptions," said Rodriguez, who played a key role in the response to the DUHS infiltration.
Viruses that exploit e-mail to penetrate networks have become common for users with college e-mail accounts. But in most cases, these viruses are part of hacking operations of a much larger scale.
"With most viruses it's not typically the case of someone going after Duke, but more so a random virus reaching the wrong server," Board said. "This is comparable to the recent [Mytob] virus."
A man believed to have authored and launched the Mytob e-mail virus was arrested in Morocco in late August.
"It's a bleak world out there," Rodriguez said. "Right now, networks such as Duke will just have to play the cat in a game of cat and mouse."
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