News Keeping
Information Secure
WRITTEN BY SEAN GALLAGHER
SEAN@STNMEDIA.COM
S
ince Ferris Bueller showed it was possible to alter grades or attendance records with a per- sonal computer in the definitive 1986 comedic film directed by John Hughes, students the
world over have hacked into their school’s network, sometimes for sport, but mostly for nefarious reasons. Te stories are always the same. Te perpetrators are described as possessing brilliant computing know-how, yet they are poor students who don’t apply themselves to the material or their full potential. Teir focus is too wrapped up in other things. Not to be daunted by these labels, the culprits engage their computer skills to exploit the holes in the school’s supposedly secure system to improve grades and atten- dance reports for themselves and others. Tese electronic break-ins are consistently discovered, authorities alerted to the criminal activity. Te wrong- doers are often then caught and charged, the schools pledging to improve the security of their networks. Over the past year, these real-life examples have orig- inated from the likes of California, Maryland and New Jersey, to name a few. Just recently, three New York high school students were arrested and accused of illegally retrieving confidential records by logging keystrokes. To commit this act of electronic fraud, the trio broke into the school after hours and installed a keylogger to gather usernames and passwords, which granted them unlimited access to the network. Once inside the system, the three suspects changed a number of grades, as well as reworked the schedules of hundreds of students. Te triad of hackers was quickly caught and their malfeasance amended before it could do any permanent damage. Each of these crimes shed a bright light on the severe weaknesses in school district security protocols. With the collection and utilization of student data at an all-time high, and transportation services as a benefactor, school districts consistently report that they remain vigilant in protecting confidential records by utilizing a number of precautions to ensure that the sensitive information is never distorted or revealed. Yet, with technology advancing at a breakneck pace, hackers take little time in uncovering new ways to crack cyber-security measures.
Computer hacking has been a concern for more than 24 School Transportation News • JANUARY 2016
Are hackers after the data
available from your fleet?
30 years. Digging deeper into pop culture history, “War- Games” (1983) showed what a computer-savvy teen could do when confronted with a failing grade. While the consequences of this hacker’s intrusion were heavily dramatized and grossly exaggerated, for the information that school districts collect and retain to remain private, the measures to safeguard it must constantly evolve to stay ahead of these potential breaches. Tis is the current reality and one that affects every- one, including transportation departments, which apply a variety of measures to keep data secure. “Transporters that store the data on their servers are subject to their IT department’s rules. If the data is stored remotely, as in the cloud, the district is at the mercy of the policies created and enforced by the service provider,” said Pete Meslin, director of transportation at Newport Mesa Unified School District. Located in Orange County, California, NMUSD
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
