College Park, MD January 10, 2006 The University of Marylands Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced that it intends to offer an Executive Master of Science (MS) in Accounting program. The program will include a focus on internal auditing making it a unique offering and well positioned to meet a critical need for accountants with advanced degrees and internal audit specialization following the institution of the Sarbanes Oxley Act.

The Robert H. Smith School of Business kicked off its Business Ethics Lecture Series on October 6, with a riveting talk on white-collar crime and living on the ethical edge delivered by guest lecturers Alfred and Joan Porro. The Porros spoke of the personal and professional upheaval caused in their lives after they were sentenced to more than 45 months in prison for white-collar crimes. They held an audience of university undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff spellbound as they openly shared their experiences and lessons learned.

College Park, Md. September 28, 2005 The University of Marylands Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced that Lawrence A. Gordon, Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Managerial Accounting and Information Assurance Director, has been invited to join the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC)s Study Group on Risk Management Approaches to Protection. The study group supports the work being conducted by NIAC.

The Ernst & Young Foundation presented a matching gifts check for $37,073 to Dean Howard Frank on May 5, 2005 to the Robert H. Smith School of Business on behalf of University of Maryland alumni partners, retirees and staff. Of the total amount, $28,323 is designated for the Ernst & Young Education Excellence Fund, $7,500 to the Dando Scholarship Fund and $1,250 to the Lamone Fund. When combined with individual alumni contributions, the check from the Ernst & Young Foundation brings the organizations total gifts to the Smith School over the past year to $71,446.

Can an individual computer user be held liable for neglecting to update their virus protection? How much is enough for a firm to spend on information security? What can be done about the free-rider problem? These were among the questions explored by a group of scholars from around the world at the Second Annual Forum on Cybersecurity held at the Robert H. Smith School of Business on Thursday, May 26, 2005.

The information revolution has not only introduced new technologies, but has also changed the way business is conducted. Economic transactions increasingly take place via digital networks, and a critical part of this interconnectivity is the way organizations have integrated accounting and financial management systems with Internet-based applications.

The Smith School's thought leaders, under the helm of Stephen Loeb, Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Accounting and Business Ethics, just wrapped up their annual MBA experiential ethics course with a field trip to prison to meet inmates convicted of white-collar crimes. On Friday, May 7, just days after the prison visits, almost two hundred second-year MBA students listened even more intently as Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-Maryland) spoke about business ethics, corporate governance, and the progress made since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

On February 3, 2004, five Smith School accounting students were awarded scholarships from The Maryland Society of Accountants (MSA) for their outstanding academic achievements. Michelle Fernheimer, Michelle Gardner, Kuo-Sheing Lee, Paula Sparacino, and Daniel Volk were selected among 34 total scholarship winners. The total amount awarded was $22,020.

A new study on prolific authors in accounting literature cites Lawrence A. Gordon, Smith's Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Managerial Accounting and Information Assurance and director of the Ph.D. Program, as the world's 35th most prolific author in the field of accounting, placing him among the top one percent.

Professors Lawrence A. Gordon and Martin P. Loeb of the Smith Schools accounting and information assurance department presented some of their recent research on economic aspects of information security at the 2nd Annual Workshop on Economics and Information Security, held here at the Smith School on May 29-30, 2003. (The first workshop was held at the University of California, Berkeley in May 2002.)