EAGLE SCOUT | ISSUE NO. 22-11

NEWS | Universities struggle with cyber threats

3 June 2022

INDIA – A report by Singapore-based digital risk management, CloudSek, revealed a 20% increase in cyber threats in the global education sector in the first three months of 2022, compared to the same period in 2021. Crucial data points among universities and colleges are student and parent details. The risks posed by ransomware is significant due to the availability of confidential data. READ HERE   

NEWS | LAUSD affected by Illuminate Education data breach too

6 Jun 2022

UNITED STATES – The major cyberattack that affected New York City Public Schools is now known to have impacted Los Angeles Unified School District, too. The reported LAUSD data breach occurred in December and January. To date, no further details are available (i.e., amount or type of student information that were compromised or accessed without proper authorization). READ HERE

FEATURE | Protect children’s digital rights from Edtech treating students like products

10 Jun 2022

AUSTRALIA – A recent report exposed children’s rights violations by Edtech providers endorsed by governments in Australia and overseas. According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, apps and websites being used in some of the Australian schools in varying degrees to harvest children’s personal location or learning data in order to monitor, track, or profile students. READ HERE

FEATURE | Are schools disproportionately surveilling students who rely on school-issued devices?

15 Jun 2022

EUROPE – The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has released a report on student monitoring software, raising critical red flags on student equity and privacy protection. It notes that widespread monitoring can disproportionately impact students from low-income families who rely on school-owned devices which track student activity more extensively compared to personal devices. READ HERE

NEWS| Over 30,000 students’ personal information exposed in unprotected database

6 Jun 2022

UNITED STATES – The personal information of more than 30,000 students was found on an unsecure Elasticsearch server left connected to the internet. It exposed more than one million records representing personally identifiable information such as full names, email addresses, and phone numbers, along with credit card information. READ HERE