Today’s typical college student may come to campus with their own laptop, smartphone, tablet, smart TV, and gaming system, said Doyle Friskney, CTO of the University of Kentucky.

With that being the case, “a university needs to recognize it’s not a business, and it can’t use traditional historical security practices to secure the campus,” Friskney said. “Students today don’t want faculty or administrators telling them what they can and can’t do with their own things.”

University IT staff must understand where key data is located, and need to ensure significant protections are in place, such as firewalls, and two-factor authentication for those that work with the data.

“Our students have come from an environment where they’re not restricted in accessing knowledge and information,” Friskney said. “If they want to watch a TV program, they are probably going to do it online. If they are enjoying one another’s company, they will find Instagram. They aren’t going to want us to tell them which applications we’ll allow on campus and how they’ll have to put software on their computers. We need to realize that, and allow the environment they’re used to to exist here.”