Entrepreneur-professor, John Shovic of Spokane teaches students to stop hackers, viruses, has lessons for all .

Entrepreneur-professor teaches students to stop hackers, viruses, has lessons for all

Professor and entrepreneur John Shovic says common-sense steps can be taken to ease network security risks.

Access the Internet using an unprotected personal computer and a hacker will be “knocking at the door” within about 45 seconds.

Do that with a Web server and in less than 15 minutes, there’s a 50-50 chance it’s been taken over by someone who can use it to send spam e-mails all over the world that can be traced back to you.

Hook up that new wireless router you bought at the consumer-electronics store, use the default settings, and someone can park outside on the street or sit next door and download porn using your broadband connection.

“Whose door do you think the FBI will come knocking on?” asks John Shovic, a high-tech entrepreneur and part-time cyber security professor who tells of those unsettling risks and others.

Shovic teaches Eastern Washington University students about the dark side of the Internet—about the likes of hacking and viruses and worms and Trojan horses. He does it so students understand how the bad guys work, and how best to protect against their mischief, which now costs corporate America more than $1 billion annually.

Though he has spent a decade teaching, having also done stints at Washington State University and the University of Idaho, Shovic is keenly aware of the computer security needs in the business world. Back in the late 1980s, he was one of the founders of Pullman, Wash., chip designer Advanced Hardware Architecture; 10 years later he helped start Coeur d’Alene-based network security concern TriGeo Network Security Inc.

Most recently, Shovic helped launch and currently is president and CEO of Blue Water Technologies Inc. http://blueh2o.us/blueh2o/ , which has developed technology used in municipal water systems.

“I learned network security from the business side,” he says.

By Paul Read

Full Story: http://spokanejournal.com/spokane_id=article⊂=2275