I have spoken to several tech people outside of K-12 lately. When the topic of information security comes around, they talk about how much they are focusing on the “growing insider threat” their employers face. I always smile because those of us in K12 have always faced a hostile internal threat, students. Here are a couple of examples of how students can be an insider threat at school.
At Colorado’s Jefferson County K12 Schools KUSA reports that administrators are investigating reports that student hackers got into Golden High School’s computer system and changed grades. Investigators are looking into whether students inside the school hacked the campus portal system. A student said, “People started giving themselves A’s.”
Golden High School students told the media that the hackers changed the grades for themselves and others just before winter break and the end of the first semester.
Administrators do not even know how many grades were changed. It could be low as 15 students or as high as 200. The district will not say if any students were caught or how many are suspected of hacking into the system.
Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Cindy Stevenson told local TV her staff is working hard to find out how it happened. When they do, she says security will be improved.
Berkeley High School
Prestigious Berkeley High School in Berkeley CA succumbed to the student insider threats. The media reports nearly three dozen students were suspended and face expulsion for hacking into the K12 school’s attendance system, an act that could lead to criminal prosecution according to SFGate. At least four students used an administrator’s stolen password to clear tardies and unexcused absences from the permanent records of 50 students, offering the service or the password for a price, Principal Pasquale Scuderi said.
The hackers erased from the system hundreds of cut classes and tardies from October through December, and charged classmates $2 to $20 for the illicit help, Scuderi told the SFGate.
Orange County K12 schools
The student insider threat struck K12 schools in Orange County, California. Omar Khan a former student of Tesoro High School, pled guilty to charges of having installed spyware on his high school’s computers and having used the collected passwords to get access to the grading system and change his grades according to CSO Online.
Khan and another student, Tanvir Singh were arrested for breaking into the school’s assistant principal’s office at night. Khan’s goal was to destroy the evidence that he cheated on a statistics test by stealing it.
Khan had faced a maximum of 38 years in prison on the felony burglary and public-record tampering charges is expected to be sentenced to 30 days in jail, 500 hours of community service, and ordered to pay about $15,000 in restitution.
The article says Khan admitted he was guilty of breaking into school offices and installing spyware on computers and then using the passwords to change some of his grades and that of 12 other students.
He also acknowledged that he changed his transcript grades to appeal rejection letters from the University of Southern California, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Nevada salutation
PC World reports that in Pahrump, Nevada, K12 schools Tyler Coyner, Pahrump Valley High School’s 2010 salutation with a 4.54-grade point average, was arrested as the ringleader in a group of 13 students who have been charged with conspiracy, theft, and computer intrusion. The article states that Coyner somehow obtained a password to the school’s grade system and, over the course of two semesters, offered to change grades in return for cash payments.
According to PC World, ten juveniles have also been arrested for having profited from Coyner’s offer to bump up their grades. It turns out that Coyner, somewhat foolishly – chose to make himself the one that profited most from his scheme. In fact, the 4.54-grade point average that made him the school’s salutation is the result of his own grade manipulation.
rb-
Looks like Coyner is gotten a head start on his dream of becoming a Wall Street hedge fund trader by facing criminal charges as a student insider threat at school.
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
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