Cyber Security for the Digital District
CoSN Newsletter, Spring 2008

Welcome to the Spring 2008 edition of the Cyber Security for the Digital District newsletter. We hope this information is helpful to you and we welcome your suggestions for future editions. Contact linda@cosn.org.

Student Online Issues
At the recent CoSN Conference, the session “Education in a MySpace World” provided information regarding educating students, staff and parents about the instructional potential, as well as the dangers, of internet use. Interesting statistics were shared from Pew Internet and American Life project reports from 2005 and 2007 include:

93% of teens 12-17 use the internet and can access it from multiple locations
87% of parents are online
73% of families have broadband at home
66% online teens have cell phones
68% of teens using cell phone text
78% of teens say they believe that the Internet helps them with their education

More than ½ of all teens have created media content and roughly 1/3 of teens who use the internet have shared the content they produced.

In addition it stated that the group at highest risk online are 11 ½ - 15 year old kids, with 70% of the victims online are girls.

In February 15, 2008 Technology and Learning article "Safety and Social Networking, Alec Couros, PhD referred to an August 2007 National School Boards Association report Creating & Connecting, a study of children's use of online social networking. The study shows that the majority of American youth polled (ages 9 – 17) report they spend "almost as much time using social networking services and Web sites as they spend watching TV." The PEW/Internet report Teens and Social Media (December 2007) affirms and extends the findings of the NSBA report. It states, "The use of social media—from blogging to online social networking to creation of all kinds of digital material—is central to many teenagers' lives." The point that Dr. Couros makes is that kids are there, connected, and teachers and parents need to accept this and facilitate control over social networking, especially with young children.
URL: http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604996

Most of students’ online activity takes place away from schools, yet schools have a great obligation to provide instruction not only in usage but ethics and legal issues involved while online. Schools can play a vital role in providing education resources to parents so that they too can reinforce ethical and legal internet activities for their children.

Parent Resource
Below is an article provided by AT & T that would be a valuable resource for your teachers and parents. Please feel free to send this information home with students or include in a parent newsletter.

With summertime just around the corner and some kids heading home soon to enjoy spring break, parents should be concerned with more than just sunburns. As more and more children surf the Web at home, online safety is becoming a major concern in many households, and teachers need to emphasize the importance of this issue to students and their parents.

Teachers are well aware that the Internet and other new technologies have transformed the way children communicate today. Students seem to always be plugged in — talking and texting on their cell phones, or emailing and blogging on their computers. For parents, it can be difficult to keep up.

Nevertheless, parents must promote and foster a positive online experience for their children in this communications age, and teachers can be a great source for guidance regarding online safety. By following a few simple tips, parents can help ensure that their children’s online experience is safe and fun.

Teachers can pass on the following as general security and safety tips for parents to use at home:

Supervise Computer Use: Keep the computer in an open area, be aware of other computers and other devices children may be using outside of the home, and consider installing software to control where children go online.
Keep The Lines Of Communication Open: Use the Internet with your child and familiarize yourself with their activities online.
Be a Technical Geek: Secure the family computer by regularly updating the operating system and installing a firewall, and up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Many service providers, like AT&T, make it easy: www.att.com/safety.
Act Like the Child: Search blog sites your children visit to see what information they are posting.
Do Your Research: Many organizations, such as IKeepSafe, Common Sense Media and Enough is Enough provide online safety help for parents on their websites.

Social networking sites have become some of the most popular online destinations for children. These sites encourage and allow people to exchange information about themselves and communicate with the world at large, using blogs, chat rooms, email and instant messaging. While social networking sites have the ability to extend one’s circle of friends, they also expose users to people who may have bad intentions — from abusive peers to sexual predators. Teachers can pass the following along to their students that have social networking website accounts:

Protect Privacy: Keep personal information — such as your name, phone number or address — personal.
User Name Savvy: Ensure user names do not reveal too much personal information such as identity or location.
Minimize Negative Publicity: Posting inappropriate photos can lead to damaged reputations and unwanted attention from others.
No ‘Take Backs’: Remember that once information is posted online and deleted or modified, the original will never be completely deleted.
Don’t Talk to Strangers: Teach children to be careful about adding strangers to IM Buddy or friend lists; people are not always who they say they are.
Cyber Strangers vs. Physical Strangers: Online friends should not be met offline.

The potential dangers that linger online can be minimized or avoided with appropriate education and supervision, and it is important that teachers share this information with parents and their children to encourage secure online practices. Even when students are at home, teachers can help ensure their safety.

Cyber-Security: Prepare for the Inevitable Breach

Did You Know:

More than 220 million records containing sensitive personal information have been involved in a security breach in the United States during the past three years, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Experts at SophosLabs have revealed that 92.3 percent of all e-mail sent during the first three months of 2008 was spam. In addition, during this period, Sophos found 23,300 new spam-related Web pages every day, or one about every three seconds.
According to Dave Nagel in his article, “Study: The Year's Top-10 Web Application Vulnerabilities”, 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."
On the whole, according to the report, Web application vulnerabilities increased 3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared with the third quarter. And actual attacks and probes increased from 1.3 million in October 2007 to 1.7 million in December 2007.
The highest percentage of incidents came in the form of probes, attempted access, and scans, accounting for 59 percent of incidents in the fourth quarter. Others included investigation (16 percent), "improper usage" (10.3 percent), unauthorized access (7.6 percent), malicious code (6.9 percent), and denial of service (0.2 percent).
Security firm Websense released a report that showed for the first time in history that Web sites compromised by "attackers" (phishers, etc.) now exceed those created specifically by attackers. In other words, more previously legitimate sites have been turned to malicious purposes than sites created for malicious purposes in the first place. The Web 2.0 technologies used on those legitimate sites offer vulnerabilities attackers can take advantage of.

Cyber attacks on your school are happening every day. Being prepared for the inevitable is your best plan. Please access CoSN’s Cyber Security website http://www.securedistrict.org for tools that will help you understand and address the issues. While you are planning for these external threats, please note that according to Gartner Group, 70 percent of incidents that cause loss to enterprises involve insiders. Schools generally implement security tools like firewalls and intrusion prevention, but should really focus on internal threats as well. In order to prevent data exposure, include internal threat policies and protection in your plans. We recommend that you follow these steps in your planning process:

Detailed planning with the right people. This is more than your IT department - it should include administrators, legal counsel, human resources, and your public relations representative.
Identify potential threats and work to protect your network and data from both internal and external threats.
Develop procedures and policies for any type of potential breach (this is where HR, legal team and PR play a big role).
Ensure you have adequate and appropriate training and awareness for all staff and students
Test, Test, Test - make sure that everyone is clear on roles and responsibilities. If possible, an outside audit will also help make sure that you have

About CoSN

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a national non-profit organization, is the premier voice in education technology leadership. Our mission is to advance the K-12 education community's capacity to effectively use technology to improve learning through advocacy, policy and l eadership development. Our members represent school districts, state and local education agencies, nonprofits, companies and individuals who share our vision. To learn how membership in CoSN can make a difference in your district, click on www.cosn.org/join or contact us at either membership@cosn.org or 866/267-8747 x115.

You are receiving this e-newsletter because you visited www.securedistrict.org and requested information about CoSN's Cyber Security Leadership Initiative. Please share this e-newsletter with others who share your interest in this topic. If you have any questions, please contact:

Linda Sharp
Project Director, Cyber Security for the Digital District
ph: 303-771-1271
linda@cosn.org

About CoSN

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a national non-profit organization, is the premier voice in education technology leadership. Our mission is to advance the K-12 education community's capacity to effectively use technology to improve learning through advocacy, policy and leadership development. Our members represent school districts, state and local education agencies, nonprofits, companies and individuals who share our vision. To learn how membership in CoSN can make a difference in your district, click on www.cosn.org/join or contact us at either membership@cosn.org or 866/267-8747 x115.

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You are receiving this e-newsletter because you visited www.securedistrict.org and requested information about CoSN's Cyber Security Leadership Initiative. Please share this e-newsleteter with others who share your interest in this topic. If you have any questions, please contact:

Linda Sharp
Project Director, Cyber Security for the Digital District
ph: 303-771-1271
linda@cosn.org