News

Twice this week, there have been enewsletters about the Connecticut teacher who almost went to jail for "porn in the classroom". As you know, I am no champion for most public school teachers, but in this case, the poor lady lost her teaching credential because of "malware".

Malware is the bad software that can infect computers – yours and mine, if we are not vigilant about anti-virus and anti-adware. To top it off, she was not even the regular teacher in this classroom, so the computer wasn't even hers.

You can read the the report by Robert Cringeley or the followup piece in IT World. The teacher is Julie Amero, and contrary to what you might see on CSI, there were no intelligent crime scene investigators in this case. Outside security consultants – on their own – took on the case. Their investigation found several things, but the biggest was that the school district's own policies prevented Julie from being protected.

Truly a case of bumbling – poor computer security, poor police work and poor investigation of the evidence. Too bad they took her credential and then granted an appeal. She will never teach again, but who knows who will be struck next.

The real issue here was not "bad" teacher, but rather bad malware that popped up those pictures, on someone elses computer which she just happened to be using.

Sometimes, I just fly through the AARP Bulletin, but this time, the article struck a chord. They were talking about identity theft, and what you should shred. We have a shredder, and ever since our local police talked about people stealing mail just to get my credit card offers, we have been shredding more.

I actually started burning mail years ago, after an employee of one of our customers (a newspaper no less) had her purse “snatched”. Even though she was a newspaper reporter, with access to all kinds of “where to go to stop this” information, It took her over six months to get her identity protected again. She had to fight with banks to get her money back and her good credit rating.

Her article pointed out how easy it was for someone, once they had some information about you (and your credit cards), they could drain your bank accounts quickly. Even apply for change of address on existing accounts and open new accounts.

At any rate, the AARP blurb left little that you should not shred. The bad guys are everywhere, so shred anything that includes “your birth date, signature, account numbers, passwords, PINS or Social Security number.” The list goes on…deposit slips, credit card receipts (after you get your monthly statement), used airline tickets, old medical bills, those “pre-approved credit card apps and canceled checks you don’t need for tax purposes.

Quite a list, but rather safe than sorry. Seems that just throwing stuff away does not work (there are “garbage divers”). And once the bad guys have your information, it will be a while before you realize you have been had.