Loudoun County Public Schools students are accused of hacking fellow students’ accounts.
Superintendent Aaron Spence condemned the hacking in a March 8 statement to parents on the LCPS website. He said a “small group” of students did the hacking and a “small number” of students were victimized, but didn’t specify exactly how many perpetrators and victims were involved.
In a March 11, email, LCPS spokesman Daniel L. Adams wouldn’t comment. He cited the ongoing investigation of the matter.
Spence said the students used “social engineering” to answer password reset questions to hack into other students ClassLink and StudentVue accounts. The accounts include students’ assignments, grades and schedules.
He said information such as Individualized Education Programs for special education students, wasn’t accessible.
To prevent further hacking, Spence said LCPS will no longer provide challenge questions to reset passwords. Instead, students must now request help from an IT employee to reset passwords.
“These actions do not reflect the values at LCPS and will not be tolerated,” Spence said, adding that the county Sheriff’s Office is investigating the matter. “We take matters that involve our students’ privacy very seriously and the division’s Department of Digital Innovation has taken immediate steps to secure student accounts and to prevent incidents like this from occurring in the future.”
Hacking is prohibited under LCPS Policy 8650 which warns students that staff “routinely monitors” their online activity.
“Any communication or material using School Division technology, including electronic mail and documents created, stored, or shared from a user’s account, may be monitored, read, recorded, copied, seized, and/or provided to appropriate authorities by school officials without prior notice,” the policy states. “Users shall have no right or expectation of privacy.”
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