Multi-factor What? Putting a Popular Library Resource Behind Additional Security

Abstract

In the summer of 2018, Augusta University experienced a cyber attack that put the personal information of hundreds of thousands of people at risk. As a result, there was a comprehensive effort initiated to place all externally facing systems behind an additional layer of multi-factor security. While this security was relatively easy to put in place for some systems, the library's EZproxy application proved to be a bit more complex.
Augusta University has multiple campuses including the Summerville campus (formerly Augusta State University), the health sciences campus (formerly Georgia Health Sciences University / MCG), and a medical partnership campus located in Athens, GA. We have a variety of electronic resources available through the University Libraries and some of these are restricted to one campus or the other. As a result of this situation, some of the logic we have to use in the EZproxy configuration can get complicated. During our project to implement multi-factor authentication, we also learned that the complexity of our EZproxy setup impacted how we ended up implementing the additional security measures.
As cyber attacks become more sophisticated, libraries will be expected to place their resources behind increased security to protect patrons. This presentation will provide an overview of our experience in implementing multi-factor authentication for off-campus access to EZproxy. Attendees will learn which strategies worked for us and which ones didn't. At the conclusion of the session, attendees will be able to take valuable insight back to their home institution regarding this process.