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.