Teen hacker Bill Demirkapi on finding bugs, that exposed 5M student records across 5,000 schools, in educational software from providers Blackboard and Follett
A FEW SHORT decades ago, the archetypal hacker was a bored teenager breaking into his school's network to change grades, à la Ferris Bueller.
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@il_fps
Illinois Families
on x
“The state of cybersecurity in education software is really bad, and not enough people are paying attention to it.” https://www.wired.com/...
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@motherboard
@motherboard
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With this sort of access, an attacker could obtain a student's password, their birth city, details on their free or reduced lunch, and other information. https://www.vice.com/...
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@darkainmx
Vincent Milum Jr
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Kid gets suspended for finding vulnerabilities in school software. Sad to see this is still an issue. I was entirely kicked out of school in 9th grade, never allowed to finish high school, for similar reasons, being too good at computers. https://www.vice.com/...
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@fyrn
Marian
on x
This is how I started my career. I found my school's novell netware was unsecured in 8th grade, sent a message to my dean's office through it and was banned from computer class for it. Stopped going to school as a result, started working at 16 instead. https://www.vice.com/...
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@iethics
@iethics
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“The state of #cybersecurity in #education #software is really bad, and not enough people are paying attention to it”: https://www.wired.com/... #ethics #law #research #internet #tech #business #hacker
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@wired
@wired
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Some teens play sports after school. Some study for tests. But this teen spent his afternoons hacking into giant software companies, exposing deep vulnerabilities that gave hackers access to everything from student grades to immunization records. https://www.wired.com/...
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@dangillmor
Dan Gillmor
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Teenager suspended by completely clueless school district after exposing — in a responsible way — giant security flaws in software the district uses for core functions. https://www.vice.com/...
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@a_greenberg
Andy Greenberg
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In a heartwarming #defcon27 story, Bill Demirkapi began hacking his high school's administrative software when he was 16 years old. He eventually found that 5 million records across 5,000 schools were left exposed by simple web vulnerabilities. https://www.wired.com/...
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@kidssecuriday
Kids SecuriDay
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At the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas, 18-year-old Bill Demirkapi presented his findings from 3 years of after-school hacking that began when he was a high school freshman, poking at two common pieces of software used by his own school. https://www.wired.com/...
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@metacurity
@metacurity
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Eighteen-Year-Old High School Student Found Flaws in School Software That Could Have Allowed Hackers Deep Access to At Least Five Million Students' Data in 5,000 Schools @a_greenberg https://www.wired.com/... https://metacurity.com/...