Generic Passwords Expose Student Data

Makarand writes "The personal information of thousands of California children and their teachers was open to public view when the school districts issued a generic password to teachers using the system. Until the teacher used the system and changed the generic password to a unique password, anyone was able to type in a teacher's user name and generic password to gain access. Administrators shut down access to the service after a reporter phoned in to let them know that she had been able to access student information for all the children in two middle-school classes where the teachers had not yet changed their passwords." From the article: "'I'm fuming mad,' said Sarah Gadye, the San Francisco middle school teacher who discovered the problem Thursday -- three years after the district purchased the service for elementary and middle school teachers. 'My own child could go into this, figure it out and get all this data on all these students. It's mind-boggling.'"

Comments

Meanwhile, teachers have DUPED us...

[callipygian-showsyst]

Meanwhile, teachers have duped us into believing they're underpaid! They even get special tax breaks, oestensibly to "purchase school supplies". What a powerful lobby they have!

Of course, now all students have to be IQ-tested for the "no student left behind" act. Perhaps we should test the teachers, too, and leave some of them behind.