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MySpace-hoax trial shines light on federal cyberbullying bill
By Courtney Holliday
First Amendment Center Online intern
11.20.08
As federal prosecutors in California began this week to try a Missouri woman on charges of online fraud in connection with the suicide of a teenager, a bill to more directly confront cyberbullying remains in a congressional subcommittee.

Five Charlotte, N.C., teachers disciplined for Facebook posts
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg elementary teacher who referred to her school as "ghetto" and listed drinking among her favorite activities may be fired while four other teachers in the district who posted suggestive photos or conversations will be disciplined but not fired. The teachers reportedly allowed public access to their pages and listed the school district as their employer.

IT Security: What K-12 Admins Need To Watch
by Bridget McCrea
With schools and the Internet becoming increasingly intertwined, district IT systems are more and more likely to fall prey to cybercriminals looking for their next victims. Knowing this, school districts must become more vigilant about protecting faculty, students and machines from hackers who see such systems as the perfect breeding ground for viruses, botnets, malware and other threats. 

Organizations Cutting Back on IT Security Staff
By Jabulani Leffall
The IT security function, as a percentage of total IT staff at enterprise organizations, appears to be in decline, according to an addendum on security in a research report released this week by Computer Economics.
The findings of the report, titled "IT Staffing Ratios and Trends," were gathered from respondents at 200 IT organizations and covered what the Irvine, CA-based research shop identified as 14 key IT functions, including security.

Hackers leverage Obama win for massive malware campaign
In the November 6 issue of eSchool NewsToday, we once again learn of the dangers associated with email from unknown sources and even sources that sound creidible. Hackers have seized on the results of the U.S. presidential election to launch a major malware campaign that tries to trick users into installing an update to Adobe Systems Inc.'s Flash, but actually plants a Trojan horse on unprotected PCs, Computerworld reports. Click here for the full story

Spam Attacks on the Rise in Q3:
Identity thieves and hackers appear to be coming at Windows users from all fronts, most commonly with spam. They were particularly active during the third quarter of 2008, when they did it eight times more frequently than in the previous quarter, according to a report released Monday by Sophos.

Family Online Safety Institute Launches New Website:
Providing web 2.0 tools on new web 2.0 website
WASHINGTON - The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) today launched a new interactive, user-friendly website on www.fosi.org to further promote the mission of protecting kids online. The new website will be the place to gather information on Internet safety from thought leaders, industry, nonprofits and government to promote best practices and offer tools to families around the world.

Malware Disguised as Social Networking Tops Emerging Security Threats
What's the top threat to data security going to be in 2009? According to the GTISC Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2009 out of Georgia Tech's Information Security Center, the answer is malware specifically disguised as "benign social networking links." Read this report by Dave Nagel at http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23451

Fake YouTube pages used to spread viruses
 Some sophisticated surfers could get taken in by a sneaky new attack in which criminals create fake YouTube pages--dead-on replicas of the real site--to push their malicious software and make it look like it's safe stuff coming from a trusted source, reports the Associated Press.

Schools grapple with teachers' Facebook use
As online social networks explode in popularity, administrators wonder: Is it OK for teachers to ‘befriend’ their students online?
By Maya T. Prabhu, Assistant Editor eSchool News

Family Online Safety Institute Applauds Congressional Efforts to Protech Children on the Internet. House and Senate pass bill for national online safety awareness campaign.

WASHINGTON, DC, October 2, 2008 - A large number of Americans still fail to use basic Internet security tools and there remains a substantial gap between the protections people think they have and what is actually installed on their computers, according to a new cyber security study released by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Symantec, makers of Norton security software. 

Survey: Most teens bullied online, but few tell adults
Three out of four teens say they've been bullied online at least once in the past year, but just 10% told an adult, according to research by psychologists at the University of California-Los Angeles that was published in the Journal of School Health. Teens said they didn't tell adults because they feared Internet restrictions and felt they needed to deal with such bullying themselves, researchers said. Yahoo!/CNET

Exposure to Malware on the Rise Web security services firm ScanSafe reported that the total number of Web-based malware blocks has increased by 87 percent in July 2008 compared to the previous month. Specifically, the first two weeks in July have shown an extraordinarily high volume of malware blocks. ScanSafe sells online security services, which scan Web requests from its customers and blocks malicious content. Read Complete Article

Emergency Alerts via Facebook and MySpace Are New Ways to Reach Students

As many of you know the FTC staff revised its COPPA Frequently Asked Questions in December 2007, including FAQ 44, pertaining to e-cards and forward-to-a-friend campaigns. See http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/coppafaqs.shtm for more details.

A recent article in the T.H.E. Journal "Study: The Year's Top-10 Web Application Vulnerabilites," Dave Nagel states that web applications, by far, dominate the list of application security vulnerabilities facing IT organizations. While 29 percent of vulnerabilities are attributable to network and infrastructure weaknesses, a full 71 percent are attributable to both open source and commercial Web applications, according to a report released recently by security firm Cenzic Inc., "Application Security Trend Report for Q4 2007." For the complete article, please access http://www.1105newsletters.com/t.do?id=940722:712490.

The Myth About IT Security, Security Is the CIO’s Responsibility

The May/June issue of EDUCAUSE Review contains an article, written by Diana Oblinger and Brian Hawkins, that would be valuable for those in charge of district security including CIOs, CTOs, and District Technology Advisors. It provides information about current security issues and strategic suggestions for addressing the issues from people to processes.

CDW-G Releases Higher Education Security Report Card (PDF)

And the findings are not positive. Scare funds and staffing are producing security holes at US colleges and universities.

School Network Hacked

Police are involved in an investigation of internal hacking by district employees in Wellston School District (MO).

Security That Won’t Bust Your Budget

District Administration has some easy to implement suggestions for beefing up your Internet security, on which you definitely need to focus attention, given that Symantec researchers have found that educational institutions are the number one largest target of attacks (see article sidebar).

Cyber-Security Concerns Mount as Student Hacking Hits Schools

CoSN CEO Keith Krueger was interviewed on the state of cyber security in schools as part of an Ed Week article on student hacking.

Hacking in Higher Ed

Hackers have attacked a Georgetown University server that was storing confidential information on over 40,000 people being tracked by the District of Columbia's Office of Aging.

Connected and Protected

The National Cyber Security Alliance has released a guide to keeping kids safe online that focuses on social networking sites like MySpace.com.

FTC Releases Do You Know Who Your Kids Are Talking To?

The Federal Trade Commission has released a set of safety tips for parents and kids for online social networking.

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