Forwarded from: William Knowles <wkat_private> http://www.stoughtonnews.com/news.cfm?num=3471 [ http://lists.insecure.org/lists/isn/2003/May/0007.html - WK] Terry Hagerty Courier Hub Reporter May 12, 2003 STOUGHTON -- The Stoughton Board of Education Tuesday night voted unanimously to expel a Stoughton High School student for illegally gaining entrance to school computers and altering grades and attendance records. Monday night's expulsion hearing was the first of three separate hearings scheduled for this week for the three students alleged to have been the main actors in the scheme. The expulsion hearing was closed to the press and public. Several students have also been suspended in the case, which involves as many as 20 students, some of whom reportedly had grades changed unbeknownst to them. Some students were charged $5 per grade change, according to official reports. Also, the grade of at least one athlete, who was academically ineligible to play sports last fall, had his grade altered in an apparent attempt to make him eligible again, although he told officials he was not aware of the grade change. The accused students used a sophisticated computer program which is able to detect the keystrokes used in typing in a password and transfer the information to a website, 'ispynow.com', so the information could be accessed from a remote site. The students were apparently able to use the program undetected and leave it in place, as early as last December, even while district computers had undergone a security audit in January, Supt. Myron Palomba recently said. On several occasions, students used school computers, including school library computers, to gain access to faculty computers. A teacher initially detected that grades of three students in her algebra/trigonometry class had been changed on her computer entries. A further investigation determined the hackers also had changed student grades posted by several other teachers. When questioned by district officials, with his parents present, one 16-year-old student said he and two other students had used a program which will log 'everything' a computer does, and then send that information to an Internet website. The program can capture keystrokes (i.e. passwords), e-mails, instant messages and both sides of 'chat conversations' and even credit card numbers. The computer intrusions cost school officials time and expense by having to check computers at all of the district's schools. Palomba said the school district is working with Madison’s Inacom Information Systems to evaluate and improve the district’s computer security system. Charges against several students are pending, Police Chief Pat O'Connor said early this week. *==============================================================* "Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ================================================================ C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org *==============================================================* - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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