[MilkmanDan]

http://www.local6.com/education/3894666/detail.html

This is one funny story. I think these students have been watching too many 80s movies. I especially like the part where the school is hiring experts from Microsoft to make sure their computers are 'secure.'

[demograph68]

The school district has hired security experts from Microsoft to make sure the computers will be secure from any future hackings

Yeah right.

[MilkmanDan]

Maybe they should invest in training for their teachers. Money well spent.

[the_glassman]

Hahahahha, what a completely lame way they "hacked" the computer. They used "spyware" to find out passwords. What kind of genius thought that up? I'm sure glad the boys from Microsoft came quickly to the rescue. If a few script kiddies can break in you know you are in trouble. Reminds me of the days I used Sub7 on the computers in school. j/k

[TheBadgerHunter]

They probably altered them too much. Amateurs.

[11011001]

Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
Maybe they should invest in training for their teachers. Money well spent.

How could it have happened.

They said they used spyware to get the passwords, so i guess a keystroke logger. So, either 2 things are possible, the teachers were using the same account that the students were using, or that the students gained admin access so that they could log the teacher accounts. The former seems more likely, in which case, WTF? Stupid teachers. People really should have a basic understanding of security these days. Who needs security experts, when teachers could be trained on basic security.. or even just told not to use public accounts.

Dumb.

But, someone correct me if am wrong, one cannot log another users keystrokes unless the software is run with admin privileges?

[DeathToWindows]

yeah, my HS was an interesting case in this regard...

mac (9.2) with FoolProof for security... really short passwords (4 character usually)

if one was so enclined, shoulder-surfing the teachers was entirely possible, and considering that grades were handed in on FLOPPIES, they were rather easy, if one was so enclined, to modify

[Randman]

If the students are smarter than the teachers and administrators, they should be allowed to keep the grades.

[pathogen]

Teachers should be able to review the grades for all their students' classes at the end of the year to see if things look suspicious.

Just because you can hack into your school doesn't mean you deserve to pass because you're already smart, it just means you're a lazy sh*t who failed to apply themsleves and didn't learn their lessons in social responsibility.

[Kenneth]

Elk Grove, CA

That's where my PowerMac is built. The school should switch to Mac instead.

[wdlove]

A case of high tech cheating.

[MilkmanDan]

So I guess there is an advantage to an all Mac school.

[storer]

Originally posted by Randman:
If the students are smarter than the teachers and administrators, they should be allowed to keep the grades.

[nforcer]

Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
So I guess there is an advantage to an all Mac school.

One can still create a program for Mac that logs keystrokes in an attempt to find a password (if such a program does not already exist). The only real security advantage an all Mac school would offer is better protection from virii and what not, because none exist... yet.

That, and I guess being a different and unfamiliar platform than what most script kids are used to.

[skalie]

Originally posted by pathogen:
Just because you can hack into your school doesn't mean you deserve to pass because you're already smart, it just means you're a lazy sh*t who failed to apply themsleves and didn't learn their lessons in social responsibility.

Type that will probably do well in business.

[macaddict0001]

I believe that is called changing certain numbers in certain text documents that are to be printed into report cards.
the weird part is that the school hired people to fix the problem.

[MacNStein]

Originally posted by Randman:
If the students are smarter than the teachers and administrators, they should be allowed to keep the grades.

We did that in HS, only changing a few test scores by a point (ex. from a 95 to a 96), just to see if we could get away with it. We did.

I still remember teaching my CS instructor DOS commands on a PC AT with DOS 3.3, setting up batch files for him so that he could operate the thing. Before that, the only computer he'd ever used was a TRS-80 model II, I think. Nice guy though, he just let us play KQ and Bard's Tale and gave us all A's.

[MilkmanDan]

He he he, at least the 'hacking' they did was more believable then the hacking in the movie Hackers.

[d4nth3m4n]

Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
He he he, at least the 'hacking' they did was more believable than the hacking in the movie Hackers.

looks like you've been speaking too much japanese lately.

[MilkmanDan]

Damn.... wow... and my Japanese still sucks the... you know what.

[Superchicken]

Reminds me of my graphics teacher my last year of HS, I basically set up his lab for him. He had little clue what he was doing, and I was the mac head. I got 95% as my final exam mark before I'd handed it in because I asked for an extension so I could add on more work. He didn't bother to inform me that the marks had to be in two days before I shwed him my project.

[starman]

Wargames & Ferris Bueller.

Both starring Matthew Broderick

Mike

[MilkmanDan]

Originally posted by starman:
Wargames & Ferris Bueller.

Both starring Matthew Broderick

Mike

Bueller? Bueller?

[iOliverC]

Will they ever learn, my old HS had its admin username/password as 'admin/admin', I mean, come on!

[mitchell_pgh]

Most schools in our area do not maintain their own grades. They outsource them to small companies that maintain the grades.

The teachers simply hand in a scan sheet and drop them off at the office.

[hayesk]

Originally posted by nforcer:
One can still create a program for Mac that logs keystrokes in an attempt to find a password (if such a program does not already exist). The only real security advantage an all Mac school would offer is better protection from virii and what not, because none exist... yet.

Yes, but you need admin privileges to install the keystroke loggers.

[MilkmanDan]

Originally posted by hayesk:
Yes, but you need admin privileges to install the keystroke loggers.

Login: admin
Pass: admin

The way to get into most wi-fi networks.