Discuss about the Information Security in Education.
The key problem that was identified in the case study was regarding the information of the password which the students were trying to breach. The issue with it was that they were trying to change their grade from the data that are store in the database of the school computer system to get good marks.
In this case study the hackers are using brute force password and get into the district’s computers to initiate bogus transfers from the payroll account of the school. The former student shoulder surfed the employee password at their high school and continues to use that information even while graduating. They use the information to hack the information system of the district’s student (Anyon et al., 2016). Thus, this helps them to gain access from a different payroll data of the districts. It includes the social security numbers, birth dates and information of the bank account. Through this information they were able to use the credit cards details, alter the information of the bank account and create some cheque. Another group of student had installed a keystroke-tracking program on the computer system of the school and grab the name of the user with its password for almost 10% of the teachers, students, administration and parents who were using the system (Roig, 2018).
It has been found that breaching the password by the student can be devastating. Through the recent evidence it has recognize that the organization are ill-equipped by the student attack (Goran, 2017). The student has breach the security by stealing the information from the database of the school computer system. The organization was not able to provide the information after breaching the password. The student used the password information and get access to change the grades from the system. When the attacker install the keystroke-logger program into the computer and keeping a record of the master password of the user, it became easier for the attacker to access the password that the head of the school use to login.
It is not possible to provide any alternative at this point of time as it has damage the reputation in the public and staff of the school. In order to protect the data from getting expose to fraud there were a procedure that has to follow to protect the staff. It might have happen that the information of the grades has been shared or reveal to almost every student.
After being analysed, it could be clearly stated that student are trying to hack the system of the institute to change their grade by taking their friends computer (Bailey & Bauer-Jones, 2015). At this time it is not possible to stop the access. However, it is better to inform the management of the school to protect the information of the students’ data in the database. It is now important that every staff has to take the security of the password seriously.
Thus the best thing that could be done in order to manage the password is to be careful that when the user access to the system no one should see the password. Another feature that can be added to manage the password is visit to the link and enters the username and password thus eliminating the need of remembering the credentials (Meddings, 2017). Now, it is required to provide a master password which only the head of the school will have to log in to the system. This would be very helpful to protect the data from the student. The next feature would be creating a random password which mixes with the symbols, numbers, lowercase and uppercase. Through it the information of the password generated could be secure.
It is recommended to practice the physical security of electronic data. The files, portable equipment need to be made secure. It would be better if extra security measure has been used such as encrypting the data which make difficult for the unauthorised user to access it. Another thing that could be done is using an encrypted personal identity information (PII) portable device. This might helpful as student would not be able to access the external portal with the permission of the faculty or the head of the school. While working it would be better not to use open or unencrypted wireless for sending any data. It would be preferable not to use email or IM with unencrypted data. The user can use a cryptic password which would be difficult for the student to guess.
While analysing the case study it has found that 67 % of the students tried to hack the account of their friends for at least once through their account in social networking or instant messaging. It seems to be that students are not aware of the ethical behaviour and they should be given knowledge about the right and wrong. The students in a group can infiltrate the records management system of the districts of the school (Hacker & Barak, 2017). This group of student when get into the system once can change the grades of those students who gave some amount to this student to change their grades (Wissinger & De La Paz, 2016). There other way of hacking was the using the Movir files. The student tries to hack into the user files of the administrator. The students once get into the system, it then change the password of the student and remotely it shut down the system. Meanwhile, folders are created and copied in the file of the assistant principle. The student was taking class of networking and during the class itself it tried to hack the system (Teixeira, Batistela, & Dickel, 2017). The student though had the capability but did not meet any damage to the computer. However, his motive was to just see into the system, if something that he could get. Another case was found that a student with third grade has used the password of the teacher and gain access into the instructor’s portion in the blackboard of online learning. He changes the password of some of the student and then changes the assigned homework. Another case study is about the senior project were a student with fifteen year old tried to use almost three programs in 200 milliseconds to hack the management system of the district records. The student when got into the system lowered the grades as he already got 4.0 in his paper. The student then wrote a paper of three pages on improving the network security.
In one of the blog it was studied that student were having unauthorised access which was true. But the student did not change the grade instead change the background image of the desktop. The student had logged into that are networked with multiple computers using an account that are of administrative-level. The student was suspended for about 10 days. Unauthorised access is a computer crime violation under the act of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) (Bentley, 2015).
In one of the school the students had hacked and exploit vulnerability into the system and manipulated the information of the attendance and personal grades. Almost 20 high school students’ record in MISTAR was impacted due to unauthorised changes in the student information system (Jordan, 2018).
In all of the case that has been seen in the study, most of the issue exist on increasing the grades. They are not physically doing any kind of damage to the system. However, it is impacting the organization reputation and the record system of the management. If student are not able to perform well in their task then obviously the students are responsible for it. At this point where they are trying to hack the school system to gain access and change their grades then the facilities of the technical department need to improve their security access so that without the main head or the concern faculty none of the student can access the system in an unauthorised manner.
The best thing the school organization can do is to upgrade their security system every day. The school can think of increasing the necessity of cyber security and protect their system and things are going online. Thus, in order to make out the way for the hackers not to attack the system, changes are needed in improving the learning process of the online system and the security of the computer.
It is recommended the school to reset all the Parent Portal passwords and provide with detail information to the parents of those students who has hacked the system providing them with detail information about the incident. The student education and safety of the grade information should be the highest priority for the school authority. It is suggested to provide the student with the policy of the Code of Conduct to maintain the privacy and take actions on unauthorised access.
References
Anyon, Y., Gregory, A., Stone, S., Farrar, J., Jenson, J. M., McQueen, J., … & Simmons, J. (2016). Restorative interventions and school discipline sanctions in a large urban school district. American Educational Research Journal, 53(6), 1663-1697.
Bailey, M. R., & Bauer-Jones, K. (2015). Florida Senate Bill 1108: A Case Study and Analysis of Implications and Impact. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 18(1), 53-65.
Bentley, S. E. (2015). The Size Effect of School District on Network Security Management: A Comparative Analysis of Rural vs City Public School District’s Network Security in Missouri (Doctoral dissertation).
Goran, I. (2017). Cyber Security Risks in Public High Schools.
Hacker, M., & Barak, M. (2017). Important engineering and technology concepts and skills for all high school students in the United States: Comparing perceptions of engineering educators and high school teachers. Journal of Technology Education, 28(2).
Jordan, J. (2018). The Impact of a Sixth Grade Laptop Initiative on Student Attitudes Concerning Their Learning and Technological Competencies.
Meddings, F. S. (2017). Investigating Assessment in Higher Education: Demystifying Marking and Grading to Reveal Expert Practices. A phenomenological analysis of marking and grading practices of novice and experienced health academics (Doctoral dissertation, University of Bradford).
Roig, J. V. (2018). Do Smarter People Have Better Passwords?. arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.02931.
Teixeira, A. C., Batistela, F., & Dickel, A. (2017). Computer Programming and Auxiliary Learning Processes: Hackers School Case. Creative Education, 8(07), 1001.
Wissinger, D. R., & De La Paz, S. (2016). Effects of critical discussions on middle school students’ written historical arguments. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(1), 43.
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