The age of the student hacker is here

At more than one USA education institution, students have been charged with hacking into the school’s computer database to steal passwords or other sensitive information, or to change test results.

The tech-savvy teens are often one step ahead of network administrators: in one recent case, hackers used keystroke-recording software to gain access to passwords.
Observed James E. Culbert, an information security analyst for the Duval County school system in Jacksonville, Florida, “We’ve got 135 000 potential hackers within our district, inside the same network that houses our student information and human resource systems.”

School computer systems are also vulnerable to external forces. Culbert emphasises the need for schools to update ‘acceptable use’ policies on a regular basis, to insulate the student network from the network used by teachers and administrators, to use up-todate antivirus software and security patches, and to emphasise digital citizenship and consequences for deviant actions.