The problem afflicting the e-learning system of knowledgeable university

This paper is in response to the article, “ Securing E-Learning Systems” by Ramin and Levy. The article details the threats to e-learning systems because of cyber attacks and describes the way in which responses to the same can be articulated. The article goes to great lengths to describe the problem afflicting the e-learning system of KU (Knowledgeville University) and the way in which the IT staff of the KU University tried to salvage the e-learning system that had been brought down because of a cyber attack. The authors also document the lessons learnt from the handling of the crisis and describe how they can be used to prevent attacks in the future.
To provide a context for the case described in the article, there has been an exponential growth in the number of e-learning programs offered by universities around the world. Hence, it becomes imperative to erect suitable measures to prevent these systems from going down. There is a need to ensure that e-learning systems that are the backbone of many of the courses offered by these universities are robust and can withstand the onslaught of cyber warriors who delight in hacking into these systems and bringing them down.
The case described in the article is about how the e-learning system that went down was a result of poor maintenance and inadequate measures taken by the administrators responsible for maintaining the system. As the authors point out, there were several lapses in the way in which the system was maintained and run by the IT department of KU. Some of them include, not taking backups regularly, improper use of the C drive and no structured effort to maintain user accounts and delete them after the students have left the university.
These and other errors led to the system crashing and threatening the conduct of the e-learning course in the university. What is galling is the fact that there was a lackadaisical approach to the whole issue of maintaining the system from failure. This is something that the management of KU ought to take seriously and ensure that such haphazard methods of maintaining the system are avoided. This case holds lots of lessons for the system administrators of all kinds of IT systems and in particular, those of the e-learning modules that are very popular in the education sector.
The fact that downtime in a system threatens the conduct of the entire course and leaves the fate of the students in the balance should be a wakeup call to all those who are in-charge of maintaining the system. The article is an important reminder that one cannot be negligent when it concerns the IT systems and one has to constantly monitor them for any kinds of errors and alerts that point the way to future disasters. In conclusion, it is my opinion that the IT system at KU was being handled in a very unprofessional manner and this led to the downtime that was the result of poor planning and irresponsible decision making.

Sources
Levy, Michelle Ramim and Yair. ” Securing E-Lerning systems: .” Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 8(4), October – December 2006 (2006): 24-34.