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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JUNE 19, 2006 Ethical Hacking Program to Require Background Check Two Universities Report Data Theft Addressing Student Plagiarism Google Debuts Shakespeare Site Wikipedia Adjusts Editing Policy ETHICAL HACKING PROGRAM TO REQUIRE BACKGROUND CHECK Students who want to take part in an ethical hacking program at the University of Abertay in Scotland will be required to pass a background check to weed out those who might apply the skills learned in the program to malicious ends. University officials will work with the Home Office and a Scottish disclosure service to screen applicants, looking for anyone with a criminal background. The program, called Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures, is a four-year degree intended to teach hacking skills to students who will then work with businesses to prevent hackers from doing damage to computer systems and data. It is the first program of its kind in the United Kingdom. Responding to concerns that the program will simply create more hackers, Lachlan McKinnon, a professor in the program, said the university will do all it can to ensure students use their skills in a positive manner. He added, however, that there are no guarantees. "Harold Shipman qualified as a doctor, after all," he said, "before deciding to become a murderer." The Register, 19 June 2006 http://www.theregister.com/2006/06/19/hackers_background/ TWO UNIVERSITIES REPORT DATA THEFT In unrelated incidents, two universities said personal information on students had been compromised. At Western Illinois University, officials said a server that contained between 200,000 and 240,000 Social Security or credit card numbers for current and former students may have been accessed by a hacker. The school attempted to notify affected individuals before publicly announcing the breach, advising them to monitor their credit reports for suspicious activity. Meanwhile, a thumb drive containing class rosters was stolen from a faculty member at University of Kentucky. Although the university is in the process of replacing Social Security numbers as identifiers for students, the rosters on the stolen drive date back to 1998 and contain Social Security numbers. Chronicle of Higher Education, 19 June 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/06/2006061901t.htm ADDRESSING STUDENT PLAGIARISM Sally Brown, pro vice chancellor for assessment, learning, and teaching at Leeds Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom, believes that the age of technology has not only made cheating easy but has also engendered a sense among today's students that there is nothing wrong with copying and pasting someone else's work into your own. Many students today, she said, simply do not understand what plagiarism is and why it is wrong. Of the several approaches Brown suggested for fixing the problem, the one she thinks the best is designing coursework around plagiarism. By giving assignments that require personal knowledge or that compel students to provide regular accounts of their studies, an instructor can largely avoid the issue of plagiarism, according to Brown. Other strategies include education, punishments, and changing the culture among students so that cheaters are looked down on by everyone. BBC, 18 June 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/5093286.stm GOOGLE DEBUTS SHAKESPEARE SITE Google has launched a new Web site specifically for the works of William Shakespeare and related resources. At the site, users have access to the full texts of Shakespeare's 37 plays and can search those texts for words or phrases. The site also has links to academic resources concerning the plays, online groups that focus on Shakespeare, and videos of stage productions of Shakespeare's plays. The site also points users toward Google Earth, which coordinates maps of the globe with Internet searching. With Google Earth, users can locate the Globe Theatre in London and find other resources with information about the site. The site was introduced as part of Google's sponsoring of New York's "Shakespeare in the Park." USA Today, 14 June 2006 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-06-14-shakespeare-google_x.htm WIKIPEDIA ADJUSTS EDITING POLICY Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia based on the model that anyone can contribute to or edit any entry, has placed new restrictions on editing. Certain entries in any reference work are bound to be contentious, and with Wikipedia, disagreements can escalate to a "revert war," in which competing factions simply change an entry back and forth to reflect their opinions. Such disputes have resulted in a status of "protected" for 82 entries, meaning they cannot be changed at all, and a status of "semi-protected" for another 179 entries. Semi-protected entries can only be changed by someone who has been a registered user for more than four days, the idea being that such a "cooling off" period will avoid most of the problems resulting from disagreements. Despite the steps Wikipedia has taken away from the ideal of "anyone can edit," founder Jimmy Wales says the resource works and is valuable. Most entries are only protected for a short period of time, he said, and they represent a fraction of the 1.2 million entries in the English-language version. New York Times, 17 June 2006 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/technology/17wiki.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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