Last month, we talked about the different types of Internet filters available for school use and how they protect your students from dangerous hackers and disruptive websites. However, as powerful as these programs are, tech-savvy students—or even teachers!—can undermine your system. This month, we’ll turn our vision inward to examine security breaches from behind school walls.
Students Rage Against the Wall
Look up “access blocked sites” on your search engine of choice, and you’ll find a smorgasbord of program loopholes and workarounds for the most common filter choices.
Students can band together online to find proxy servers—which trick the filter programs into thinking the user isn’t using a blockable computer—to access their favorite social media programs. The Facebook group “How to access Facebook from school” has an “About Us” section that reads:
THE LATEST SITE:
USE [omitted] TO ACCESS FACEBOOK. THIS IS BRAND NEW, SO IT SHOULD NOT BE BLOCKED IN MOST PLACES YET.
With examples like this group everywhere across social media platforms and forums, students show again and again that they are determined to stay connected to friends and test their skills. Their security breaches often demonstrate a higher level of technologic literacy than that of the teachers and administrators trying to protect their networks and children’s minds from dangerous Internet sites.
Sometimes, schools might even abuse their online filters and firewalls. Student Andrew Lampart, working on an assignment about gun control using his school’s library, found himself blocked from research.
The school’s Web filter banned certain politically conservative websites like the Connecticut Republican Party and the National Rifle Association, while politically liberal websites were still accessible. Deciding that the filter was designed to encourage certain political philosophies while discouraging dissension, Lampart lodged a formal complaint with his school for what he alleges is a “double standard.”
Teachers Versus Security
Teachers, too, find themselves victims of firewalls. One former high school teacher writes that Internet filters “hamstring teachers’ efforts to develop lessons that effectively prepare students for 21st Century challenges.” Desperate to teach to a technologically aware class, some teachers ask their students to go around the firewall so they can access blocked sites for class instruction.
Even if students don’t know firewall and filter proxies or shortcuts, there’s always cellphones. If students choose to access their preferred social media sites on personal devices using their phones’ data plans rather than through school-provided Internet, school filters are rendered useless. In cases of extreme online bullying, some schools have requested app manufacturers to establish a “geo fence” around campus, banning offending apps from being opened by any device located from a specific geographic location.
Such solutions are partial at best—new apps appear all the time, rendering the old geo-fence obsolete for the next app to go viral. As fast as security companies release new and better filtering software, students will crowdsource new solutions to break through those walls to access desired content.
Some experts believe that the best schools can hope for is to educate both teachers and students about appropriate use of technology, and to enforce acceptable use policies to discourage repeat offenders. Those who follow this philosophy operate on the assumption that school communities that can not only use the Internet, but also know how to identify and avoid damaging material will be safer than those who rely on security programs alone.
Firewalls and filters have their place in today’s 21st Century classroom, as your school must work to protect both its students and its physical assets from danger. But, the ease with which these security measures are rendered obsolete should warn even the most confident of school administrators that students are both more ingenious—and more stubborn—than he or she may have believed. Educating students in why certain sites are blocked—and the consequences for accessing them anyway—can be your first and best line of defense against online dangers.
Additional ISM resources:
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 12 No. 1 Is Your School Secure? Online Filters and Firewalls, Part One
ISM Monthly Update for School Heads Vol. 9 No. 8 According to a New Study Teachers Ill-Prepared to Teach Cybersafety
Private School News Vol. 12 No. 3 Using Social Sites to Plan and Track Spring Sports: Security Risks You Need to Know
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 32 No. 2 New Federal Rules Spur Need to Review E-Mail and Internet Policies
