Security of RMCC3

[elsiegee40]

So 2 years ago, your child was banned from the school network due to spam emails that were sent to their school email address?

 

My son has rules in place in his home-school agreement saying that his schoool email is not to be used for any contact witht the outside world. It's a major disciplinary offence... maybe this is where the problem started?

 

At my school, we use RM's EasyMail which is not brilliant, but one thing I can do is set up quickly who the students are allowed to send and receive emails from. They are set at "Local and schools", so they can only send and receive emails between themselves and other .sch.uk email addresses. (I'm in the primary sector, so this is possibly overkill for secondary)

 

I would think that a lifetime ban at school seems a little silly, if the child has access from home. I would have thought that use only when the child could be supervised at school would have been more appropriate. I'm sure your school is aware of hacking via the internet! A carefully worded letter to the school governors may be in order.

[Alice101]

I just checked the home-school agreement (secondary school) and there is no reference to emails specifically and to whom then can/cannot be sent.

[elsiegee40]

Alice you may be able to glean so more ammunition/information about cc3 from this

 

http://www.secondarycc3.rm.com/

[Alice101]

Many thanks indeed.

[Jona]

Since it seems to be an e-mail issue the fact that is a CC3 network seems to be largely irelavent to me. I would have thought a letter sent to the head / bursar / network manager at the school requesting the ban to be reconsidered / lifted in light of the amount of time passed would be the best way forward.

 

Cheers

Jona

[Alice101]

Sadly, I have tried that and failed.

[Alice101]

I called RM themselves but no one can talk to me because I don't have a support contract! I explained my problem but there was nothing to be done.

[elsiegee40]

If you have tried and failed with the governors, you probably need to go to the LEA... something along the lines of your childe being disadvantaged as he/she heads towards GSCEs by not being able to use the computers and software wavailable in school.

[Alice101]

Thanks - yes, I am considering this and am trying to gain some technical knowledge first.

[Edu-IT]

So if I've understood this correctly your son was banned from the school network because his email account was used to send spam emails. Have you got copies of the email messages and as somebody else mentioned have you seen the email headers? The security of the network is irrelevant I feel. You can send spam email messages regardless of whether a network is secure or not. Can I also ask why are you investigating this now? Two years seems an awful long time to sit on something like this.

 

If I was you I would firstly request to see the email messages and the headers of the email, to confirm that they're not spoofed messages. I would then want to know the exact reasoning for the ban and why the school feel that your son is a threat to the network. If the emails are harmless then a slap on the wrist and a reminder not to do it again would seem a fair punishment to me. That does of course depend on who the spam emails were sent to and the contents of the email. Nevertheless banning a user from the whole network for that seems a little unfair. Surely they could have just prevented him from using the school email facilities?

 

The school fears that if the child has access to its email via its website they will be able to get further into the system.

You said that the child can now access email through the website so what is the issue here? If they're letting your son access email from home, presumably through the website, then surely they no longer feel that his access is a threat? Edited February 20, 2008 by Edu-IT

[russdev]

Right feel should chime in here sure ALice101 will not mind me saying I have spoken off the public forum to her about this. Issue is no longer about email issue is about accessing email from with in school and what school feel that he maybe able to gain access to by logging into the school system. So question she asked about security of cc3 networks was the right question as emails being sent really is besides the point.

 

 

 

Russ

[Edu-IT]

So if I've understood this they've banned him from the network because they feel that he is a threat. Without reading through the thread again I'm sure I recall Alice101 saying that he had not attempted to hack the network before so I am wondering what their reasoning for this is. There has to be more to it.

[russdev]

Right as alice101 said student was accused of sending some spam emails and child's had the access disabled to the computers. They will now allow student to use email at home but still will not allow access to the computers in school. As they feel that student can access stuff from computers that should not be able to aka feel student is a risk to the system.

 

So alice101 question about how secure cc3 network is good question so around about way if logged into a out of box cc3 system;

 

A) Could the student access secure confidential information such as student records.

 

No unless the school had made system unsecure

 

b) What would student have access to under a student login.

 

Student shared area and running programs from start menu such as Microsoft office

 

Russ

Edited February 21, 2008 by russdev

[Edu-IT]

So shouldn't they ban ALL students from the network if they have the same permissions? If Alice's son hasn't gone out his way to attempt to hack the network then he is just as much a a threat to the network as any other student who has an account with the same permissions.