There are real, human risks to bad security. Infections on computers by spyware and viruses not only can make the computers slow, and lead to the loss of private information, but they can also make the computers misbehave in unusual ways. One of these ways is for many, many pop-up windows to appear on the screen, out of the control of the user. I have had this happen to my computer, and it is not pleasant. But I did not have to deal with over-reacting parents, and uninformed school system, and a crazy court system.
This is the detailed story of how a Connecticut teacher was convicted and then later vindicated with the help of a geek. She was still convicted of lessor charges and lost her teaching license, but avoided jail with the help of her “shining star”.
The risk of computer infections is bad enough, but the risk caused by people in authority not understanding the technology, its behavior, and its limitations is horrible.
How spyware nearly sent a teacher to prison
If there’s a poster child for the dangers of spyware, it’s Julie Amero.
The 41-year-old former substitute teacher was convicted of four felony counts of endangering minors last year, stemming from an Oct. 19, 2004, classroom incident where students were exposed to inappropriate images.
Prosecutors had argued that Amero put her students at risk by exposing them to pornography and failing to shield them from the pop-up images after they appeared on her classroom computer.
Its a day to day scenario for many of us IT types.
Sad.