VisualRoute Used for Networking and Information Securitiy Courses at the University of Texas

As CTO of the University of Texas, Larry Leibrock, Ph.D. is responsible for providing the IT (information technology) resources needed to keep over 10,000 faculty and students in operation. As Associate Dean of the School of Business Administration, Dr. Leibrock also teaches classes centered around networking, computer security and information forensics.

One of the tools that has become a standard part of the curriculum -- for both networking and security courses -- is VisualRoute. VisualRoute combines several essential networking tools into one easy-to-understand interface. As a result, instead of a series of numbers that result from the more traditional networking tools such as 'ping', students can see the results drawn on a graph, together with the actual route of an Internet connection. By seeing the results of various network diagnostics in one picture, students can more easily interpret the results. And as VisualRoute shows the actual path of data as it travels along an Internet connection, students get a bird's eye view of how the various pieces fit together.

The University has over 500 new MBA students a year, and they are brought into an enterprise computing environment to get familiar with IT operations. Dr. Leibrock often uses VisualRoute to introduce networking to these students, many of whom do not have a background in technology. "We use VisualRoute to actually show them how the Internet works and how we support Internet connectivity. VisualRoute's graphical interface that combines several essential networking tools into a single picture that is much easier to understand than are the individual tools like 'tracert', 'whois', etc." As one example, Dr. Leibrock is able to show students how he and his staff used VisualRoute to see congestion that occurred due to a virus attack. "Due to its effectiveness as a teaching aid, we now have VisualRoute Server available on the University Intranet for students to access and learn for themselves."

The visual nature of the tool is particularly helpful for teaching information security concepts at the law school. In Dr. Leibrock's classes, the idea is to give students skill sets on how to use information and resources for litigation. A large part of today's court cases revolve around digital evidence. It is estimated that over 90% of the information an executive sees on a day-to-day basis is electronic. The law students learn how information can be used and managed for purposes of litigating a case. 

With an extensive background in technology and information security, Dr. Leibrock is often asked to be a consultant or expert witness for court cases involving Internet related crimes, and has assisted in cases ranging from petty theft to capital offense espionage. He often employs VisualRoute to research cases and even to give court evidence. "VisualRoute has proved quite useful to explain Internet concepts to a non-technical audience, like in court cases to a judge or jury. I sometimes use the eMailTrackerPro tool with the VisualRoute IP tracking capability to show how email might be used for or against someone in a case. It's intuitive, something that people grasp. To most people a data packet doesn't have much meaning, conversely a graphic and map of the actual path of an Internet connection is easily understandable." In one case, Dr. Liebrock utilized VisualRoute to explain to a jury how email was used to solicit a young child.

"With information security forensics, the big barrier is time to solution - in other words, when I get a case, how long does it take for me to make an effective report. VisualRoute helps that time to solution," noted Dr. Leibrock. "I have even used it to verify credit fraud, based on where the IP address was located that made a transaction. Unfortunately some students do not realize the vulnerabilities of the Internet and will do something like send credit card information by email, which can be read by other parties. VisualRoute can document where an IP address is located, and provide the information regarding the network being used, which is quite useful when investigating fraud."

Dr. Leibrock is also involved with implementing cross-cultural IT projects. One such effort involves 20 MBA students in their second year, who will travel to China to meet Chinese students in Shanghai. Before and after the visit, the teams will connect 'virtually' via Internet discussion groups and conferencing. "A large part of this effort is to provide these students a better understanding of how the Internet works and how they can utilize it to accomplish objectives. VisualRoute plays significant part in this, as we use it to show how the virtual meetings from opposite ends of the globe actually take place. We are going to use conferencing technology to give a video presentation to a notional board of directors -- this would not be possible if I were not able to easily provide the students a good view of how the Internet works."

"This tool is a powerful exploration and explanation tool to explain to people how the Internet works. The nice thing about VisualRoute that it is very intuitive, and the results are immediately clear. A person can sit down with VisualRoute and learn how to apply the tool with minutes."