Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk@private> http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbccentral/content/local_news/epaper/2006/03/22/s1a_SKGRADES_0322.html By Nirvi Shah Palm Beach Post Staff Writer March 22, 2006 Someone used a school district employee's computer access to change grades and possibly other confidential records that may have affected students' college applications. The Palm Beach County School District recently sent letters to colleges and universities - they would not say how many - informing them that some of the records they received could be wrong. Since December, school police have been investigating one or more instances in which someone altered grades without hacking into the computer system, school district spokesman Nat Harrington said. Whoever did this got to the records using the identity of someone authorized to access student records. The school district has beefed up security to prevent breaches from the outside, Harrington said. They repel attempts to break into the network from the outside all the time. But it's harder to determine when someone who is authorized to use the district's computer network is doing something improper. "The system is built on the basis that everyone has a certain level of clearance," he said. "With a higher level password, you can go pretty much anywhere in the system." The computer intruder could have gotten the information by simply looking over someone's shoulder, he said. "We don't have any indication that the person is an employee," Harrington said. School district employees are now stuck trying to figure out exactly what was changed and fix the grades and other records so they are accurate. Parents and students districtwide haven't been told that student records may have been viewed, Harrington said. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to the end of the investigation," he said. When the district's investigation is finished, those responsible face serious consequences. "Once we have more information, we intend to pursue criminal charges," Harrington said. Last year, an Inlet Grove High senior was arrested for allegedly hacking into the district's system from home at least nine times, although he wasn't accused of changing any records. In that case, a school district technician noticed the network had been hacked after former student Ryan Duncan uploaded several programs onto the network in January 2004. It turned out later that those programs would have allowed him to control computers throughout the district from his home. Since then, Duncan has made a video on the consequences of hacking that has been shown at schools all over the district and on its TV station, Adelphia Cable Channel 19. Harrington refused to say which schools were involved in the latest incident. However, a parent at Dreyfoos School of the Arts said the school recently created an integrity committee to prevent situations like this in the future. *==============================================================* "Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ================================================================ C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org *==============================================================* _________________________________ InfoSec News v2.0 - Coming Soon! http://www.infosecnews.org
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