January 2008 — Features
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CSI: Hard Drive
"I can't really say I'd recommend computers be checked," says Harrold. "An IT administrator could practically spend his entire day just checking computers, monitoring their use, and forget about everything else."
Williams says most school districts do fine relying on word of mouth to root out suspect machines. Students and staff alike will squeal if they believe they've seen hankypanky, "and when those bits of information reach the right people, then it's time to do a little forensic action and find out for sure what's going on."
When to Act
Just be careful not to react too zealously to a hot tip. Those rumors going around about Coach Henderson and the cheerleader? Administrators don't want to launch an investigation if all the talk is merely baseless student gossip. Ditto when Johnny has been accused of visiting MySpace against school rules in the science lab, especially when a keystroke logger can get to the truth unobtrusively.
One question ultimately arises: Are district IT personnel the appropriate staff to rely on for such sensitive matters? There may be some gray areas where judgment calls have to be made, but Williams says certain activities require IT departments to make an immediate report to law enforcement. "It's an absolute no-brainer if you encounter child pornography— instantly stop what you are doing and go to the police and walk away," says Williams. Add threats to kill to that list, forensic experts advise.
"We're in a situation right now where school systems are just waking up to how important it is to have some kind of forensic capabilities, and to educate their audiences that you can't do this stuff or you will be caught," Williams says. Karney only hopes it won't take a tragedy to get the message home.
"As the wheels start to come off and our kids start to become more frequent targets of evil," he says, "I think there will be greater visibility and a real need to perform meaningful incident response on computers. Schools need to protect the children."
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Julie Sturgeon is a freelance writer based in Indiana.
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