THE Journal — Security/Privacy
School Threat Delivered Through MySpace
A 17-year-old Minnesota high school student was charged last month with a felony after she allegedly hacked into a student's MySpace page and threatened to bring a gun to school to "kill everyone,” according to a story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
(12/11/2007)
Palm Beach District IT Chief Issues Dare to Hackers
The Palm Beach County (Florida) School District has spent more than $1.5 million in the last year to upgrade security on its administrative network after a high school student hacked into the system to change grades and attendance records.
(12/11/2007)
Shooting Prompts Florida District To Add Surveillance Tech
Manatee County, FL school district administrators are considering outfitting district schools with surveillance cameras after a 33 year-old man was shot and killed near one of its schools last month, according to a report in the southwest Florida Herald Tribune.
(12/11/2007)
8e6, CDW-G Partner for K-12 Internet Security
CDW-G and Web filtering company 8e6 Technologies have partnered up to deliver Internet security solutions to K-12 schools. Through the non-exclusive arrangement, CDW-G will make 8e6's Web filtering and reporting appliances available as part of its security solutions packages.
(12/10/2007)
Parallels Adds Full Mac OS X 10.5 Support, Launches Premium Edition
SWsoft has released an update for its virtualization software for Mac OS X, Parallels Desktop. The latest build (3.0 build 5582) brings full support for Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard"). It also brings various other, minor enhancements added since the previous build, released at the end of November. The company has also shipped a new suite called Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac Premium Edition, which bundles the core virtualization software with various Windows utilities.
(12/6/2007)
Loudoun Deploys Weather Notification System
Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia has deployed a weather alert system from WeatherBug Professional and Sprint. Called WeatherBug Protect, the system uses mobile phones to alert faculty and staff of weather-related issues that could impact schools and outdoor events.
(11/26/2007)
Illinois District Keeps an Eye on 'Net Abuse
Illinois' Plainfield School District will use Spector 360 from SpectorSoft to prevent student Internet abuse and inappropriate usage of its computing infrastructure, which serves more than 28,000 students via 5,500 computers.
(11/20/2007)
Mirage NACs Stave Off Storm Worm
Network Access Control systems from maker Mirage Networks can now recognize and isolate the Storm Worm, and variants thereof. The Storm Worm incorporates infected computers into a global, distributed botnet estimated to range in size anywhere between 250,000 and 10 million infected computers.
(11/20/2007)
Unified Threat Management Platform Expands Mail Security
Check Point Software Technologies today rolled out new versions of its Unified Threat Management appliances and software. The updates expand the range of protection the systems offer for e-mail, including adding a second layer of virus/malware protection and adding enhancements to spam filtering.
(11/19/2007)
Florida District Holds K-12 Computer Security Workshop
The School District of Lee County in southwestern Florida last week held a workshop for students, teachers, and parents on Internet safety, including the dangers of cyber bullying, stalking, and impersonation.
(11/13/2007)
Nashville District To Test Face Recognition Security
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools in December will become the first school district in the United States to use security cameras with face-recognition technology, according to a report in USA Today.
(11/13/2007)
Laptop Security: Covering the Bases
Students at two Laredo Independent School District middle schools became the lucky recipients of 3,000 laptops last year, thanks to a PIP grant that funded the purchase of the Dell computers. Used during the school day, the laptops are also toted home at night, allowing students to use them for both educational study and leisure. It's the latter that led the school district to take one additional step before handing out the machines: equip them with filtering, antivirus and firewall protection that would keep both computer and user secure in the unpredictable online world.
(11/13/2007)
ACLU Contests Cell Phone Policy at Colorado High School
The American Civil Liberties Union last month challenged the actions of the Monarch High School in Lafayette, CO, after school administrators confiscated a sophomore's cell phone after a school security officer accused him of smoking and parking in the wrong lot.
(11/12/2007)
Fort Worth Voters Decide on School Surveillance Systems
Fort Worth voters approved a bond package last week that includes $7.3 million to install video surveillance systems throughout the school district. Another $29 million of the $593.6 million school renovation bond would go toward a range of security and fire safety projects to bring every campus up to current building codes.
(11/12/2007)
Fremont Bolsters Web Security with Blue Coat Appliance
As part of its 2007-2008 technology goals, Fremont School District in California had deployed appliances from Blue Coat Systems to improve Web security and reduce bandwidth consumption. The district is also using the Blue Coat ProxySG appliances to provide Web security and policy control across its Internet gateway.
(11/1/2007)
Web 2.0 Entails 'Sleeping Giant' Security Risk
As increasing numbers of enterprises climb aboard the Web 2.0 bandwagon, it's more important than ever for software developers keep security in mind during the development process. So says Danny Allan, director of security research at Watchfire, the Waltham, Mass.-based Web-app security company acquired by IBM in July. Allan was in Santa Clara, Calif. to speak at this year's AjaxWorld show, and he took a few minutes to talk with me before his presentation.
(10/30/2007)
ShareLoader Appliance Automates Remote Backups
Crossroads Systems has started shipping a new appliance designed to automate backups of both on site and remote systems--SurePath ShareLoader. The appliance allows for backups of saved files on user machines (Windows-based) and also allows those users to retrieve lost data themselves, with the aim of reducing "IT overhead."
(10/22/2007)
StudentWatch Tracks School Safety
PublicSchoolWorks, a company that develops safety and regulatory compliance tools, has released a new Web-based system for tracking and reporting on student safety issues, from bullying to sports-related accidents. The new system, StudentWatch Suite, combines online tools with phone support, training, and compliance management services.
(10/22/2007)
On Notice: Virginia District Gets Savvy with Messaging
The need for a school-wide lockdown came quickly and probably would have caught administrators off guard had it not been for their new tech-based notification system. It happened during the first month of the 2007-08 year, and, rather than being confronted by a hoard of frantic parents at the front door, an staffer at Prince George High School in Prince George, VA, jotted off a message that was sent to every applicable parent.
(10/10/2007)
Blue Lane Ships VirtualShield 4 for VMware
Blue Lane Technologies has released VirtualShield 4.0, a security solution for VMware Infrastructure 3 and designed to integrate with VMware VirtualCenter.
(10/8/2007)
MIT's Kerberos Consortium To Expand Data Security
MIT in September launched the Kerberos Consortium, according to a report from the university's News Office. MIT is the originator of Kerberos, a network authentication protocol. One of the goals of the consortium is to expand it to offer data protection to a wider range of clients, including various consumer devices.
(10/8/2007)
Spring Lake Creates 'Student Messengers' with Online Tool
"It is our goal to provide avenues for open and comfortable channels of communication in our building," said Paula Hoff, principal of Westwood Middle School in Minnesota, part of the Spring Lake Park School District. The district this month became the first in the state to deploy an anonymous online reporting system. "We want the students to know that we care about what is happening in their lives, and this is yet one more way to let them know we are invested in their academic, emotional and social success."
(10/8/2007)
Los Angeles USD Tries Out Mass Notifications
The Los Angeles Unified School District is deploying a mass notification system to provide emergency notifications to parents and students and to offer regular alerts on district events and news. According to the NTI Group, which is providing the notification system, LAUSD is now the largest district in the United States to deploy such a system across the entire district.
(10/2/2007)
Blue Lane To Ship VirtualShield 4 for VMware
Blue Lane Technologies has announced that it will ship VirtualShield 4.0 Oct. 5. VirtualShield is a security solution for VMware Infrastructure 3 and designed to integrate with VMware VirtualCenter.
(9/27/2007)
Speaking Out
Getting students to come forward with information about crimes, threats, and bullying has always been a challenge for Tim Hartfield, chief of police for the Petal School District Police Department in Petal, MS. That was, until the district's middle and high schools implemented an online reporting system that students can use to report their concerns in an anonymous fashion.
(9/17/2007)
