Information Security in Education: Case Studies on Breaching Password and Student Hacking

This article discusses the issue of information security in education with case studies on breaching password and student hacking. It provides recommendations on how to improve security measures to protect student data.

Running head: INFORMATION SECURITY IN EDUCATION
Information Security in Education
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Case Study 1: Breaching Password............................................................................................2
Case Study 2: Student Hacking..................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Case Study 1: Breaching Password
The key problem that was identified in the case study was regarding the information
of the password which the students were trying to breach. The issue with it was that they
were trying to change their grade from the data that are store in the database of the school
computer system to get good marks.
In this case study the hackers are using brute force password and get into the district’s
computers to initiate bogus transfers from the payroll account of the school. The former
student shoulder surfed the employee password at their high school and continues to use that
information even while graduating. They use the information to hack the information system
of the district’s student (Anyon et al., 2016). Thus, this helps them to gain access from a
different payroll data of the districts. It includes the social security numbers, birth dates and
information of the bank account. Through this information they were able to use the credit
cards details, alter the information of the bank account and create some cheque. Another
group of student had installed a keystroke-tracking program on the computer system of the
school and grab the name of the user with its password for almost 10% of the teachers,
students, administration and parents who were using the system (Roig, 2018).
It has been found that breaching the password by the student can be devastating.
Through the recent evidence it has recognize that the organization are ill-equipped by the
student attack (Goran, 2017). The student has breach the security by stealing the information
from the database of the school computer system. The organization was not able to provide
the information after breaching the password. The student used the password information and
get access to change the grades from the system. When the attacker install the keystroke-
logger program into the computer and keeping a record of the master password of the user, it
became easier for the attacker to access the password that the head of the school use to login.

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It is not possible to provide any alternative at this point of time as it has damage the
reputation in the public and staff of the school. In order to protect the data from getting
expose to fraud there were a procedure that has to follow to protect the staff. It might have
happen that the information of the grades has been shared or reveal to almost every student.
After being analysed, it could be clearly stated that student are trying to hack the
system of the institute to change their grade by taking their friends computer (Bailey &
Bauer-Jones, 2015). At this time it is not possible to stop the access. However, it is better to
inform the management of the school to protect the information of the students’ data in the
database. It is now important that every staff has to take the security of the password
seriously.
Thus the best thing that could be done in order to manage the password is to be
careful that when the user access to the system no one should see the password. Another
feature that can be added to manage the password is visit to the link and enters the username
and password thus eliminating the need of remembering the credentials (Meddings, 2017).
Now, it is required to provide a master password which only the head of the school will have
to log in to the system. This would be very helpful to protect the data from the student. The
next feature would be creating a random password which mixes with the symbols, numbers,
lowercase and uppercase. Through it the information of the password generated could be
secure.
It is recommended to practice the physical security of electronic data. The files,
portable equipment need to be made secure. It would be better if extra security measure has
been used such as encrypting the data which make difficult for the unauthorised user to
access it. Another thing that could be done is using an encrypted personal identity
information (PII) portable device. This might helpful as student would not be able to access

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the external portal with the permission of the faculty or the head of the school. While
working it would be better not to use open or unencrypted wireless for sending any data. It
would be preferable not to use email or IM with unencrypted data. The user can use a cryptic
password which would be difficult for the student to guess.
Case Study 2: Student Hacking
While analysing the case study it has found that 67 % of the students tried to hack the
account of their friends for at least once through their account in social networking or instant
messaging. It seems to be that students are not aware of the ethical behaviour and they should
be given knowledge about the right and wrong. The students in a group can infiltrate the
records management system of the districts of the school (Hacker & Barak, 2017). This group
of student when get into the system once can change the grades of those students who gave
some amount to this student to change their grades (Wissinger & De La Paz, 2016). There
other way of hacking was the using the Movir files. The student tries to hack into the user
files of the administrator. The students once get into the system, it then change the password
of the student and remotely it shut down the system. Meanwhile, folders are created and
copied in the file of the assistant principle. The student was taking class of networking and
during the class itself it tried to hack the system (Teixeira, Batistela, & Dickel, 2017). The
student though had the capability but did not meet any damage to the computer. However, his
motive was to just see into the system, if something that he could get. Another case was
found that a student with third grade has used the password of the teacher and gain access
into the instructor’s portion in the blackboard of online learning. He changes the password of
some of the student and then changes the assigned homework. Another case study is about
the senior project were a student with fifteen year old tried to use almost three programs in
200 milliseconds to hack the management system of the district records. The student when

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got into the system lowered the grades as he already got 4.0 in his paper. The student then
wrote a paper of three pages on improving the network security.
In one of the blog it was studied that student were having unauthorised access which
was true. But the student did not change the grade instead change the background image of
the desktop. The student had logged into that are networked with multiple computers using an
account that are of administrative-level. The student was suspended for about 10 days.
Unauthorised access is a computer crime violation under the act of Computer Fraud and
Abuse Act (CFAA) (Bentley, 2015).
In one of the school the students had hacked and exploit vulnerability into the system
and manipulated the information of the attendance and personal grades. Almost 20 high
school students’ record in MISTAR was impacted due to unauthorised changes in the student
information system (Jordan, 2018).
In all of the case that has been seen in the study, most of the issue exist on increasing
the grades. They are not physically doing any kind of damage to the system. However, it is
impacting the organization reputation and the record system of the management. If student
are not able to perform well in their task then obviously the students are responsible for it. At
this point where they are trying to hack the school system to gain access and change their
grades then the facilities of the technical department need to improve their security access so
that without the main head or the concern faculty none of the student can access the system in
an unauthorised manner.
The best thing the school organization can do is to upgrade their security system every
day. The school can think of increasing the necessity of cyber security and protect their
system and things are going online. Thus, in order to make out the way for the hackers not to

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attack the system, changes are needed in improving the learning process of the online system
and the security of the computer.
It is recommended the school to reset all the Parent Portal passwords and provide with
detail information to the parents of those students who has hacked the system providing them
with detail information about the incident. The student education and safety of the grade
information should be the highest priority for the school authority. It is suggested to provide
the student with the policy of the Code of Conduct to maintain the privacy and take actions
on unauthorised access.

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References
Anyon, Y., Gregory, A., Stone, S., Farrar, J., Jenson, J. M., McQueen, J., ... & Simmons, J.
(2016). Restorative interventions and school discipline sanctions in a large urban
school district. American Educational Research Journal, 53(6), 1663-1697.
Bailey, M. R., & Bauer-Jones, K. (2015). Florida Senate Bill 1108: A Case Study and
Analysis of Implications and Impact. Journal of Cases in Educational
Leadership, 18(1), 53-65.
Bentley, S. E. (2015). The Size Effect of School District on Network Security Management: A
Comparative Analysis of Rural vs City Public School District's Network Security in
Missouri (Doctoral dissertation).
Goran, I. (2017). Cyber Security Risks in Public High Schools.
Hacker, M., & Barak, M. (2017). Important engineering and technology concepts and skills
for all high school students in the United States: Comparing perceptions of
engineering educators and high school teachers. Journal of Technology
Education, 28(2).
Jordan, J. (2018). The Impact of a Sixth Grade Laptop Initiative on Student Attitudes
Concerning Their Learning and Technological Competencies.
Meddings, F. S. (2017). Investigating Assessment in Higher Education: Demystifying
Marking and Grading to Reveal Expert Practices. A phenomenological analysis of
marking and grading practices of novice and experienced health academics (Doctoral
dissertation, University of Bradford).
Roig, J. V. (2018). Do Smarter People Have Better Passwords?. arXiv preprint
arXiv:1805.02931.

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Teixeira, A. C., Batistela, F., & Dickel, A. (2017). Computer Programming and Auxiliary
Learning Processes: Hackers School Case. Creative Education, 8(07), 1001.
Wissinger, D. R., & De La Paz, S. (2016). Effects of critical discussions on middle school
students’ written historical arguments. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(1),
43.