Sunday, May 23, 2004
Fueling up before the workshop.
Tom Dunn presented virtual community creation.
A New Wrinkle
During our Saturday workshop we had an encounter with spyware. Here are two messages I have sent. The first is in the form of an e-mail I sent to the WWWEdu and LM_Net mailing lists that describes our encounter. The second is a message I sent after getting feedback from people on the lists.
Message to WWWEdu and LM_Net
Just when I thought I had seen all of the low-life adware and spyware schemes out there, leave it to the bottom dwellers to come up with a new twist. At least I think it's new, because it's something that just reared its ugly face during a workshop I was doing today.
I was working with a group of 12 teachers that I am mentoring in a grant program. We were working on web pages for our site. The teachers all have on-line journals. One of the teachers was viewing her page and looking at a sentence that read, "I've been working very hard updating my pages." She noticed that the in the word 'updating' the word dating was a hyperlink. She hadn't made it a link. When she clicked on it, it took her to a Dating Service web page!
Since all 12 teachers have ftp access to the site she immediately suspected a prank by one of the other teachers (or me). There was a lot of chuckling and everyone denied doing it. One by one as others went to the page they said they couldn't see any link. That immediately raised a red flag in my mind. I went to her browser and viewed the source code for the page. Sure enough, there was NO code for a link on the word!
It was obvious that some software was running on her computer that was looking at the source code of pages for key words and then dynamically creating links that lead to other web sites!
I ran Spybot, but it didn't pick up the critter causing the problem. I restarted the computer and closely watched the page as it loaded. The page loaded without the link, but about a second after the page loaded, the link appeared; another indication of a program running in the background.
I didn't have time for further investigation. I'll do that on Monday morning, but it is obvious that this is spyware on the computer and the implications for schools is tremendous. Just one example of what could have happened in this district. On Monday, a Board of Ed. member is coming in to check out the progress of the grant. With the way Murphy's Law works, I'm really surprised the code hijacking surfaced today, rather than when the Board member viewed the page with students around her.
I have no doubt that the practice is (or will be) illegal, but by the time someone gets around to doing something about this new practice, these bottom dwellers will be laughing all the way to the bank and who knows how many people might get burned.
Has anyone else come across this new wrinkle?
Message to the Star-W List
Hi folks,
I did some research on the problem Kristin encountered with spyware on her machine. I have the instructions for removing it completely. Just for clarification, to be considered spyware, a program must track your Internet usage and report it to someone else. This pest is called eZula and the company claims it is not spyware. It just turns every key word it encounters on a web page into links to advertisers. At this point it's impossible to tell if it is also reporting information, so I'll give the company the benefit of the doubt and won't call it spyware.
Ok, now where was I? Oh, yes... This scumware is called eZula and it is installed when students download and install certain games.
FYI - In our school system installing ANYTHING on school computers is reason for suspension and/or loss of computer privileges for anywhere from a month to the entire school year. Each case is handled individually, because, the nature of the download will determine the severity of the punishment. Downloading a game is a lot different than intentionally downloading a virus or a program to track keystrokes.
I really think we need to educate the students to the fact that these computers are there ONLY for educational purposes and that game playing that is non-educational is a violation of the Computer Use Policy. I realize that computers can be an effective reward when students are finished with work, but allowing them to go to any game site or to download and install games is a serious problem.
There are plenty of educational games available online and through reliable sources. We should develop a list of approved sites that students can go to when they are given free time on the computers.
The way I would explain it to students is simple. Discuss with them which behaviors might be acceptable to do without asking the teacher after finishing work..
1) Taking out their personal CD player and listening to rap music.
2) Taking out an AR book and reading.
3) Going out to the playground.
4) Playing a game that the teacher has in the classroom that is designed to teach reading or math.
Obviously, 1 and 3 equate with inappropriate computer use, while 2 and 4 equate with doing school work or visiting approved game sites on the computer.
We need to discuss how to best handle the situation. We need to all be on the same page. Remember, these students will be student technology leaders as they move up through the grades. If the don't develop proper use habits, they will pass those habits on to other children and can become a nightmare for teachers in the upper grades.
Incidentally, we also have a policy in our school that if there is a substitute in for a teacher, student are NOT allowed to use the computers.
Later,
Art
During our Saturday workshop we had an encounter with spyware. Here are two messages I have sent. The first is in the form of an e-mail I sent to the WWWEdu and LM_Net mailing lists that describes our encounter. The second is a message I sent after getting feedback from people on the lists.
Message to WWWEdu and LM_Net
Just when I thought I had seen all of the low-life adware and spyware schemes out there, leave it to the bottom dwellers to come up with a new twist. At least I think it's new, because it's something that just reared its ugly face during a workshop I was doing today.
I was working with a group of 12 teachers that I am mentoring in a grant program. We were working on web pages for our site. The teachers all have on-line journals. One of the teachers was viewing her page and looking at a sentence that read, "I've been working very hard updating my pages." She noticed that the in the word 'updating' the word dating was a hyperlink. She hadn't made it a link. When she clicked on it, it took her to a Dating Service web page!
Since all 12 teachers have ftp access to the site she immediately suspected a prank by one of the other teachers (or me). There was a lot of chuckling and everyone denied doing it. One by one as others went to the page they said they couldn't see any link. That immediately raised a red flag in my mind. I went to her browser and viewed the source code for the page. Sure enough, there was NO code for a link on the word!
It was obvious that some software was running on her computer that was looking at the source code of pages for key words and then dynamically creating links that lead to other web sites!
I ran Spybot, but it didn't pick up the critter causing the problem. I restarted the computer and closely watched the page as it loaded. The page loaded without the link, but about a second after the page loaded, the link appeared; another indication of a program running in the background.
I didn't have time for further investigation. I'll do that on Monday morning, but it is obvious that this is spyware on the computer and the implications for schools is tremendous. Just one example of what could have happened in this district. On Monday, a Board of Ed. member is coming in to check out the progress of the grant. With the way Murphy's Law works, I'm really surprised the code hijacking surfaced today, rather than when the Board member viewed the page with students around her.
I have no doubt that the practice is (or will be) illegal, but by the time someone gets around to doing something about this new practice, these bottom dwellers will be laughing all the way to the bank and who knows how many people might get burned.
Has anyone else come across this new wrinkle?
Message to the Star-W List
Hi folks,
I did some research on the problem Kristin encountered with spyware on her machine. I have the instructions for removing it completely. Just for clarification, to be considered spyware, a program must track your Internet usage and report it to someone else. This pest is called eZula and the company claims it is not spyware. It just turns every key word it encounters on a web page into links to advertisers. At this point it's impossible to tell if it is also reporting information, so I'll give the company the benefit of the doubt and won't call it spyware.
Ok, now where was I? Oh, yes... This scumware is called eZula and it is installed when students download and install certain games.
FYI - In our school system installing ANYTHING on school computers is reason for suspension and/or loss of computer privileges for anywhere from a month to the entire school year. Each case is handled individually, because, the nature of the download will determine the severity of the punishment. Downloading a game is a lot different than intentionally downloading a virus or a program to track keystrokes.
I really think we need to educate the students to the fact that these computers are there ONLY for educational purposes and that game playing that is non-educational is a violation of the Computer Use Policy. I realize that computers can be an effective reward when students are finished with work, but allowing them to go to any game site or to download and install games is a serious problem.
There are plenty of educational games available online and through reliable sources. We should develop a list of approved sites that students can go to when they are given free time on the computers.
The way I would explain it to students is simple. Discuss with them which behaviors might be acceptable to do without asking the teacher after finishing work..
1) Taking out their personal CD player and listening to rap music.
2) Taking out an AR book and reading.
3) Going out to the playground.
4) Playing a game that the teacher has in the classroom that is designed to teach reading or math.
Obviously, 1 and 3 equate with inappropriate computer use, while 2 and 4 equate with doing school work or visiting approved game sites on the computer.
We need to discuss how to best handle the situation. We need to all be on the same page. Remember, these students will be student technology leaders as they move up through the grades. If the don't develop proper use habits, they will pass those habits on to other children and can become a nightmare for teachers in the upper grades.
Incidentally, we also have a policy in our school that if there is a substitute in for a teacher, student are NOT allowed to use the computers.
Later,
Art
