SECURITY

TEACHER LOG-ON’S VERSUS STUDENT LOG-ON’S

A student’s log-on is ‘locked down’ and a teacher’s is not. This means when a user is logged on as a teacher they can access that computer’s settings and data as well as data on the server that a user logged on as a student cannot. Therefore it is very important that teachers do not walk away from a computer they have logged onto or let students use a computer under their log-on. We must make no exceptions to this as huge amounts of data would be put at risk or confidential information could be viewed. Under a student log-on the floppy disk drive is locked. This helps prevent the spread of viruses via floppy disks. If a student needs to save a file to their home directory from a floppy or vice versa they should ask a teacher to do this for them. Under a teacher’s log-on the floppy disk drive is accessible. In this manner, if the disk contains a virus and an alert comes up on the screen the teacher can then try to clean the virus. If the virus cannot be cleaned please do not open the file anyway as the virus will then infect the machine and the network.

TEACHER COMPUTERS VERSUS STUDENT COMPUTERS

Teacher’s computers are able to access confidential and administrative folders on the server that student computers cannot. Although a teacher is free to use a student computer (as long as they log off when done) a student is never permitted to use a teacher computer as a matter of policy. Almost every classroom has a teacher computer. Teacher computers can be left logged onto under the teacher’s log-in but a screen saver password should be set up such that the machine locks up in a few minutes when not in use.

BACKUP OF DATA

The servers are backed up on tape each school day. The tape is saved for one week and then it is re-used. Each Thursday’s tape is saved for 3 weeks for further insurance. After 3 weeks there is absolutely no backup available any longer. Teachers’ home directories and student home directories are backed up in this manner. If you think an important file is missing and you would like it restored please contact Mr. Sauer as soon as you are aware the file is missing and chances are better that it can be restored. Restoring files from tape backup is a procedure that takes at least a half an hour when he can find the time so please don’t ask for trivial files to be restored.

VIRUSES

Virus’s and worms and the like can be a nightmare and can potentially shutdown the whole network and destroy data. If you see a notice on any computer about a virus that could not be cleaned please email Mr. Sauer as soon as you can and stop using the machine. If you receive an email with an attachment don’t open the attachment unless you were expecting such an attachment from someone you know. Keep in mind that some viruses will spoof the return address of someone you know. A virus will frequently generate an email with an attachment that is a virus and the return address will be someone the virus found in your address book or your correspondent’s address book. The message of the email will urge you to open the attachment. This is why we warn you not to open the attachment unless it’s someone you know AND you were expecting the attachment. You can always email the person back and confirm they actually sent it if it looks suspicious.

PORN AND WEBSITES INAPPROPRIATE TO SCHOOL

Pikes Peak BOCES provides a filter on our internet connection and will place a webpage up saying DENIED if it is deemed inappropriate for school. Sometimes pages get through that shouldn’t and sometimes pages that should be viewable are not. Please email the URL of the webpage to DSauer@ccvschools.com either way and I can get it permitted or blocked.

In addition to BOCES’s filter we have our own. We use our own filter to block sites that student’s waste time on (games) in class or are tasteless but not something that the BOCES filter blocked. We also use our own filter to block certain students from getting on the internet if they don’t have their contract signed or if the principal decided they should lose their internet access. Finally, we also use our filter to block known adware/spyware sites. If a site is blocked by our filter a webpage appears saying so and the possible reasons why. Please email the URL of the webpage to DSauer@ccvschools.com if you wish it to be blocked and the reasons why.

With all this filtering, sometimes, a student who tries hard enough can still find porn. If you find porn on a computer that no one is using don’t turn it off. Turn off the monitor, put a sign on it saying it is out of order and let Mr. Sauer know as soon as possible. If the machine is not turned off or logged off of we can perhaps trace the culprit. If you catch a student visiting a porn site get the URL and send them to the principal. If you suspect a student was viewing porn but couldn’t catch them leave the machine on and don’t log them off and let Mr. Sauer know as soon as possible. He may be able to trace what sites they were viewing in the ‘history’ section of Internet Explorer.

PASSWORDS

Each teacher is assigned a password with a certain level of complexity. This is so it is hard to view what the password is from over your shoulder as you type it and so that viruses cannot ‘guess’ your password. There are viruses that try to guess common passwords. If you think your password has been discovered by a student or wish to change it for any reason contact Mr. Sauer. Please don’t change your password without Mr. Sauer’s knowledge as it makes it hard for him to maintain your computer when you aren’t around. If you change your password to ClassXP or InterGrade Pro please don’t use a simple password like ‘password’ or ‘pass’ or your name, etc.

ADWARE/SPYWARE

Adware / Spyware are programs downloaded onto your computer without your knowledge that report back to their authors anything from your surfing habits to your email address. Aside from privacy issues they use our network’s bandwidth and slow down your computer. Workstations on our network have been found to contain hundreds of such programs and you can imagine how they could slow down or stop Internet Explorer when they try reporting their tidbits of your info over our internet connection all at once. You can avoid getting them by not setting up AOL Instant Messenger, not playing games over the internet on gaming websites, not getting special little modifications to Internet Explorer that help you shop for bargains, by not setting up some little programs from a webpage that enables you to put smiley faces on your emails or special search assistants and the like…etc. If you think your computer’s internet connection is slowed due to these contact Mr. Sauer.

WEB-BASED EMAIL

Web-based email is email that you get from a webpage (like our school email or Yahoo Mail or Hotmail) as opposed to through a program that you must have installed and configured to your account. (like Outlook or Outlook Express) Our school’s web-based email is filtered for viruses. Any account that you may have set up with Yahoo Mail or Hotmail is not checked for viruses. We must block such mail with our firewall for security or anyone could accidentally or on purpose infect our network with viruses. Sorry.

AOL / AIM

AOL (America Online) and AIM (America Online Instant Messenger) have been in the news recently in regards to posing a security / privacy threat to computers and networks to varying degrees. It is probably more a matter of who you believe as to just how serious a threat they pose. We reserve the right to block them as more is published about just what sort of threats they pose.