Securing Blackboard Learn on Linux

Blackboard Learn is one of a suite of products offered commercially by the BlackboardCorporation. Blackboard Learn is the most widely used Learning Management System todate. A Learning Management System provides online course management andoptionally, community engagement and content management. Blackboard runs on opensource technologies including Apache HTTP and Apache Tomcat both of which typicallyrun on Linux. System Administrators tasked with hosting Blackboard Learn on Linuxhave no control over the bundling of the technologies and whether they are current.Because of this and the rapid growth of online learning, and specifically Blackboard, it iscritically important to have a plan to secure Blackboard Learn. The Blackboard technicalcommunity offers some assistance; however, something more comprehensive and concisewould be useful. This paper will examine the deficiencies in Blackboard, and how it andthe services it uses can be made more secure when running on Linux. The aim is toprovide a best practice that would benefit Blackboard administrators and others in similarscenarios.