Online Security in Schools: Expensive and Porous

Schools really struggle in the ongoing battle against online threats.  They want to provide "cutting edge" technology, but they lack the means for infrastructure and support.  As schools move more and more to one-to-one computer setups, they're finding the demands unreasonable.  It is not unusual for a school of 400-700 students to have only 1 or 2 tech professionals on staff.  Many try to maintain their networks with occasional help from outsource pros.

This is a formula for problems.  The basics of maintaining hundreds of computers along with in-house network software/hardware are hard enough that security is reduced to only that which comes default in the products.  This is not a security plan.  Moreover, it's not a vision for technology--a clear idea of the objectives of the technology and how to reach those objectives.  It is not enough to equip a school.  Once equipped, it needs to be shepherded in the productive use of technology.

If you've been in teaching any length of time, you've probably heard teachers and administrators write off the security threats (and misuses) as a necessary evil of having computers; the general idea being that we cannot close all the loopholes because students will always be a step ahead.  Nonsense!  They will be a step ahead if we don't properly staff the IT department and invest in the proper filtering software and appliances.

Students are generally not computer geniuses.  They get by filters because the filters are porous.  For example, a student can very, very easily bypass a filter that is downloaded on the hard drive of a computer.  It's a simple matter of downloading a live operating system (e.g. Linux) and running the computer off of RAM: instantaneous filter workaround.  Schools may not be aware that students, today, are banding together to use their home computers to create their own web servers.  

A simple search of "Lifehacker" online provides a step-by-step tutorial of how to set these up.  Students need to know nothing of programming or network technology to do this because all the software for doing it is readily available as free downloads: download WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP (web programming) for server setup, download PHProxy (automates proxy setup), setup port forwarding (easily done through the home router's login page/configuration gui), changing the name of your new server address using DynDNS (domain name server), password protect, share password with friends, done.  If starting with nothing, it might take two hours to set up.  It really only takes one or two students who want it enough to do the work and share it.  The point is, the internet is still a wide open space and it's really difficult to close access to the portions you don't want students to go.  Even if you find the most effective wireless network-based filtering, all it takes is a few students to bring their 4G hotspots to school and share their connection.  

Here's what I wish would happen, and it's going to sound heavy-handed.  I wish that the FCC would require every single internet provider to offer a la carte filtering at the point of origination.  Right now the public is relying on home and school filtering appliances and software that just doesn't work.  In the same way that the FCC regulates what can be broadcast over the airwaves, IPs should be required to offer flexible filtering at the IP level so that parents/sysadmins can check boxes for access options.

On the subject of interpersonal security threats, the whole culture of online communication is at issue.  The insulation and anonymity that the computer provides sometimes brings the worst out in people.  That filter that normally governs social behavior seems not to work as well when people are not speaking face-to-face or by phone.  "Netiquette" is a welcome concept.  That there are acceptable social behaviors online as well as in person ought to be self-evident to all internet users.  Virginia Shea offers something like a "Miss Manners" for the virtual online world: http://www.albion.com/bookNetiquette/

It would be stating the obvious to warn against online bullying.  We tend to know that bullying in any form is antisocial.  I would welcome a public discussion of the more subtle forms of bullying across the board.  This is needed for students and adults alike.  I think there actually may be more bullying in the adult workplace than in schools--it's just a bit more subtle.  All around us there are people making power plays and belittling coworkers.  Are we setting the right example?

It is true that lots of students use social media as a gossip mill and that it can get pretty ugly at times.  It seems to me, though, that the bigger problem by far is the consumption of media that glorifies using and abusing others--whether it's movies that portray deception and violence in a positive light, or pornographic material that portrays people as things to be used for pleasure.  These inputs, it would seem, go a long way to creating an environment in which we simply don't mean as much to each other as we should.

While we search for the ideal administrative fix in our schools for this sort of degradation, we might do well to remember that turning off the computer, and the television might help a lot.  We might consider not buying our junior high children smart phones with unlimited internet access, and we might consider being a little more circumspect about our children's social interactions: who they hang with, etc.  We might want to spend more time with our kids, just talking.  When it comes to forming uplifting human interaction, it comes down to fundamentally honoring persons as such, and there is no app for that.