Tag: Huntsville | SpinSafe

Huntsville High students challenge college teams at hacking competition

September 22, 2022/in Computer Security

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — As technology progresses and more of our information is placed online, digital content faces greater cyber threats. The National Cyber Summit brought thousands of industry professionals and amateurs to pave the future of cyber security.

On Wednesday and Thursday, more than 100 competitors made up of students and computer specialists from around the country displayed a form of ethical hacking in the Cyber Cup Challenge. Ethical hacking and penetration testing are a major part of cyber security.

“You have to have permission,” said Huntsville High cyber student Aislinn Hamill. “Otherwise, it’s not ethical.”

Ethical hackers identify system weaknesses and security risks before someone with less ethical intentions can exploit them.

“It’s basically finding vulnerabilities for the betterment of the company or the website or such,” said Huntsville High cyber student Eva Aubel. “With express permission to do so.”

Over the two-day competition, the participants found their way through a series of online obstacles by playing a virtual game of capturing the flag. For each challenge completed and each ‘flag’ captured, the teams received points.

“They’ll find an open port, be able to work through the network, and find additional vulnerabilities that exist within the network,” said Sixgen Director of Mission Operations Micheal Slayton.

Eva Aubel, Aislinn Hamill, Hailey Holsonback, and Megan Quin are seniors at Huntsville High School. Their team of four is the youngest group to qualify for the final round of the competition where they competed against college teams from across the country.

Eva Aubel, Aislinn Hamill, Hailey Holsonback, and Megan Quin (from left to right) place fourth in the academic category in the Cyber Cup Challenge at the National Cyber Summit.

“For this week of competition, they’ve had five weeks of experience,” said Huntsville High School cyber security instructor Jim Morse.

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Huntsville schools: Social Security numbers at risk in ransomware attack

December 21, 2020/in Computer Security

Huntsville city schools confirmed today that personal information including Social Security numbers of teachers and staff may have been exposed to hackers in a recent ransomware attack on the district’s computer system.

The system has “not uncovered any information that the district’s information was stolen or leaked,” Superintendent Christie Finley said in a video posted today on the school system’s website. The system has not been contacted to pay any ransom, the superintendent said, and it has made no payments.

But the system is “treating all information that was locked down as having been taken by the attacker” in an abundance of caution, the system said. Personal information that may have been exposed includes:

1. State student identification numbers for 2013, 2016 and 2020

2. Email addresses of parents linked to those ID numbers in 2020

3. Social Security numbers of school district employees between 2010 and 2020, contractors who worked for the system during the same decade and students who participated in a club called “Fantastic Four” during calendar year 2008.

“I know this isn’t the news you wanted to hear,” Finley said in a video posted today, “and it certainly is not the news I wanted to share.”

The system also offered a special temporary telephone number for parents, staff and educators to call for more information: 256-428-7773. That number will be operative Dec. 21-23 and 28-30 and Jan. 4-8. And Finley said the system is planning to reopen schools to students after the winter holiday.

In a press conference Monday afternoon, school officials said the 23,000-student system’s financial information was “not affected” by the hack. A Huntsville police inspector also said the investigation seeking those who committed the attack is “ongoing.”

Finley said system employees have worked overtime and made changes to computer systems, but she “can’t say this won’t happen again.” That is the world as it is now, Finley said, noting that the Pentagon itself was just hacked. That was a reference to last week’s federal government acknowledgment that Russian hackers had entered computer systems at the Pentagon, State Department, Treasury…

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Huntsville City School Board proposes bonus for staff amid ransomware attack

December 10, 2020/in Internet Security

Posted: Dec 9, 2020 / 10:47 PM CST / Updated: Dec 9, 2020 / 10:47 PM CST

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — As Huntsville City Schools continue to navigate a ransomware attack that forced the school to go all-paper, the school board is considering a proposal to offer teachers and staff a supplemental pay package for their hard work.

“In the last two weeks you have really shown how amazing you are and for that, I truly appreciate you,” said Huntsville Schools District 1 Board Member, Michelle Watkins.

Earlier Wednesday, the District also came out with some positive news about the ransomware attack. “Those primary systems that do house student information, iNow and PowerSchool, do not appear to be compromised as part of the cybersecurity threat,” said Huntsville City Schools spokesperson Craig Williams

Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Christi Finley acknowledged the challenges created by the ransomware attack at Wednesday’s board meeting but noted one good thing to come out of the cyber hack. “Because of COVID, we’ve seen that that laptop has really prevented that conversation piece. And dialogue, and conversation between student to student, and teacher to student, was really kind of one thing that has become a positive out of all this,” said Finley.

Also on the agenda Wednesday evening, two proposed school year calendars; one would kick off the school year on Wednesday, August 4th and end on Wednesday, May 25th and a second proposed calendar would start school on Monday, August 2nd and end on Monday, May 23rd. Parents, students, and staff have until tomorrow, Thursday, December 10th to vote on their preference through a school calendar survey.