Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Reporter accesses student info through district's open wireless network

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 12:24:38 -0400

Reporter accesses student info through district's open wireless network

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP)
June 27th, 2003

School administrators in the heart of Silicon Valley learned a recent lesson
about the insecurity of wireless Internet networks.

Armed only with a laptop and a wireless connection card, a reporter for the
Palo Alto Weekly succeeded last week in accessing the Palo Alto Unified
School District's insecure Wi-Fi network.

Rachel Metz, the newspaper's education reporter, obtained some students'
grades, phone numbers, addresses, medical information, psychological
evaluations and even photos of the kids.

Metz discovered the vulnerabilities while researching an unrelated story at
one of the district's middle school campuses. While sitting outside taking
notes on her laptop computer, a wireless connection popped up as active on
her screen.

She then asked administrators for a list of school facilities that had
wireless connections, which included the district's main office. Metz went
there and was quickly able to log on as a guest, without any special user
name or password, and view confidential student files.

Metz informed the district about the security issue with its servers. The
school district quickly took the network off-line and began to address the
problem. But Metz said she could have easily stolen data or loaded a
computer virus onto the server.

``I had no agenda. I was just very surprised, they seemed nonchalant about
security,'' she said Thursday.

The school district has begun fixing the weak wireless security.

``We are making sure that this information that was brought to our attention
is addressed,'' said Palo Alto schools superintendent Mary Frances Callan.
``That's where our total focus is.''

Some upset parents contacted the district after learning of the security
hole, she said.

Wireless network security continues to be a problem for some businesses and
organizations. Jupiter Research recently found that less than half of
business enterprises employ technology to secure their wireless networks.

Palo Alto Weekly: http://www.paloaltoonline.com

School district: http://www.pausd.palo-alto.ca.us

Source: http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/6184495.htm

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