Family Tech Blog

Tag: schools

  • Families Receive Threatening Messages after Iowa School Network Hacked

    Families Receive Threatening Messages after Iowa School Network Hacked

    A school district in Iowa canceled a day of classes after a network breach allowed hackers to send hateful messages to families from the public school. The messages contained personal details about students and threatened to do harm to them and their families. Apparently, the threats weren’t credible except to stir up fear and make a show of their ability to access the information. There is a theory that this could be an attempt to threaten people as to warn the FBI to stop investigating them.

    The group is called “thedarkoverlord” and they’ve been responsible for recent info leaks and hacks of organizations like Netflix and Larson Studios. They have been under investigation for these hacks and could have performed this recent “attack” as a warning. They even tweeted out links to the contact information of the students from the school district, stating that predators can now use that information to plan their targets.

    With the student directory from JCSD we released, any child predator can now easily acquire new targets and even plan based on grade level.

    — thedarkoverlord (@tdo_hackers) October 5, 2017

    What Parents Should Know

    Network security is becoming a more and more serious issue. We live in a world where all of your personal information is available in multiple locations online. If you, as a digital citizen, aren’t thinking about important tools like passwords and usernames your information can end up in dangerous hands. The best advice I can give you is to ask your school district if they have someone responsible for the security of their network and if so if they can keep something like what happened in Iowa from happening at your school. Then make sure you follow some simple network security rules yourself. Use different passwords for different sites. Use passwords or passphrases that, while easy for you to remember, aren’t easy to guess, and don’t ever use default passwords on websites, routers, modems, or computers. 

  • Schools are Sending Home More Technology and it’s Worrying Parents

    Schools are Sending Home More Technology and it’s Worrying Parents

    When It’s Out of Your Hands

    More and more schools are giving students tablets or laptops to help them with their school work. Much of the newest curriculum is either fully digital or integrated with a digital resource of some kind. This means that there are more devices being placed in our children’s hands and parents aren’t even able to decide if they should have them. Schools are required to have protections set on their in-house networks but there are no guarantees that your children are protected at home. There have been multiple instances reported of children coming in contact with adult content on school computers. This story from last fall highlights the inability for the school to guarantee their tech is safe when not in their own building. The conversation always goes to the same place. The responsibility for safe internet use outside of the school or library falls with the parents. What does that mean for us as mom and dad?

    What Parents Should Know

    I recieve questions all of the time about how to protect kids on their school computers. I’ve been scheduling workshops for parents at private schools and helping school leadership learn how to protect their students. Internet safety in school and on school issued devices is a serious matter. Too many schools aren’t set up properly to filter adult content and monitor messaging or internet searches. This means it’s up to parents to be sure your kids are safe.

    I recommend a couple of things. First of all, if it’s all just too much for you then ask that your child be allowed to keep the tablet or computer at school. Many schools will let your child check the computer in before they leave and check it out again when they come to school the next day. This is a good option if you’re concerned about how safe your home network may or may not be. I, of course, recommend securing your home wifi network and devices as soon as possible, though.

    Secondly, you can talk to your school administration about better security measures. What kind of internet safety setup does the school have in place? Do they apply safety settings per device? Per classroom? Is the school network protected? If so, is only their network safe or do they have protections that will follow your kids home as well? If you can’t answer any of these questions then you don’t know enough about your school’s internet safety policies. You need to have some conversations.

    Third, I would recommend talking with your child as often as you can about how they use the internet at school and at home. These conversations will help them feel comfortable to come to you if something inappropriate turns up online. They should report anything suspicious or dangerous to school officials and you and it’s up to you to help them know that.

    A New Standard

    Schools will most likely not stop issuing technology to their students any time soon and it is only getting harder and harder to protect our kids from hostile content and overuse of screen time. Remember to keep track of how much time your kids are spending online and include school in those numbers. If they are doing three hours of school work on the computer and them watching videos for two hours at home they have spent five hours online that day. Is that the healthiest internet habit you can set for your family? You decide, and then implement your plan.