{"id":578293,"date":"2021-09-28T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T16:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/?p=578293"},"modified":"2023-11-15T13:17:42","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T18:17:42","slug":"new-research-security-report-finds-ed-tech-vulnerability-that-could-have-exposed-millions-of-students-to-hacks-during-remote-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/new-research-security-report-finds-ed-tech-vulnerability-that-could-have-exposed-millions-of-students-to-hacks-during-remote-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"New Research: Security Report Finds Ed Tech Vulnerability That Could Have Exposed Millions of Students to Hacks During Remote Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated, Sept. 28<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/span> student monitoring company that thousands of schools used during remote and hybrid learning to ensure students were on task may have inadvertently exposed millions of kids to hackers online, according to a report released Monday by the security software company McAfee Enterprise.<\/p>\n

The research<\/a>, conducted by the company’s Advanced Threat Research team, discovered the bug in the Netop Vision Pro Education<\/a> software, which is used by some 3 million teachers and students across 9,000 school systems globally, including in the U.S. The software allows teachers to monitor and control how students use school-issued computers in real time, block websites and freeze their computer screens if they\u2019re found to be off task.<\/p>\n

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. <\/em>Sign up for The 74 Newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>

<\/span>\n

This is the second time in less than a year that McAfee researchers have found vulnerabilities in Netop\u2019s education software \u2014 glitches that hackers could exploit<\/a> to gain control over students\u2019 computers, including their webcams and microphones. It\u2019s unclear whether the software had been breached by anyone other than the researchers. In a $4 billion deal over the summer, McAfee Corp. sold off the business-focused McAfee Enterprise to focus on consumer cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis speaks to the power of responsible disclosure and \u2018beating the bad guys to the punch\u2019 in terms of providing vendors insights to the flaws in their products and an appropriate time period to produce fixes,\u201d Doug McKee, McAfee\u2019s principal engineer and senior security researcher, and Steve Povolny, the company\u2019s head of advanced threat research, said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do believe this bug is highly likely to be exploitable, and a determined attacker may be able to leverage the attack\u201d to breach the system.<\/p>\n

Netop, which bills its products as a way to \u201ckeep students on task, no matter where class is held,\u201d did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n