Hackers Assault High-School Computers to Modify Exam Grades

Exam cheating may get a new sense in the near future because this unfair way to get high grades at school tests evolves and brings out new techniques. If until now students struggled to create all sorts of cheat sheets, they are now moving further to high-end technology: hacking attacks. According to AP, six students got suspended a few days ago after it was revealed that they were involved in a hacking attack which affected the Rancho Bernardo High School. It seems like the hackers attacked the Poway Unified School District computers in order to get into the high-school systems and modify the grades of certain students.

No other damages have been caused but, everybody wonders how they managed to infiltrate into the school computers which handle such important information and are currently storing hundreds and maybe thousands of records concerning students.

In the past, we saw several similar cases and, in most of them, the main cause of such security breaches was represented by the weak security measures set up by computer administrators. Moreover, in other cases, computers got hacked after the attacker obtained access to an administration computer by stealing the password belonging to a school official.

What's interesting is that even after famous cases in which information of thousands of people got lost, computer administrators and security professionals are still ignoring the experts' advice and avoid implementing more advanced technologies.

Imagine that a potential successful attack over the database of the high-school would put the information of all the students at risk and, let's admit it, ID thieves are everywhere these days. Unfortunately, some of them are no longer using the details they steal for their own criminal activities and go further to setting up online supermarkets selling large bundles of stolen information.