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“Forgot your password” links the easy way in for hackers
Never mind creating a password with at least eight characters, two of which are numbers, one of which is a capital letter, and one of which is a symbol like (*&^%$). The easiest way for a hacker to weasel into your account is likely the “Forgot your password?” link.
“Forgot your password?” features are older than the Internet, providing businesses and site owners a simple way to let a user reset a forgotten password, provided he can verify his credentials by asking a few personal questions that only the rightful user should know.
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Students Flock to Web Sites Offering Pirated Textbooks
A new survey of students found that about a quarter of them reported hunting for an illegal copy of a textbook from pirate Web sites.
The survey was small—only about 500 students from two colleges—but it is one of several indicators that downloading unauthorized textbooks is becoming commonplace at college campuses.
by Jeffrey R. Young
Malware Dramatically Increasing; Almost All Users Have Clicked on Malicious Links
Web security services firm ScanSafe reported that the total number of Web-based malware blocks has increased by 87 percent in July 2008 compared to the previous month. Specifically, the first two weeks in July have shown an extraordinarily high volume of malware blocks. ScanSafe sells online security services, which scan Web requests from its customers and blocks malicious content.
by Dian Schaffhauser
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Cell Phones Make Headway in Education
Cell phones have long been anathema in the classroom, banned as a potential distraction, at best, and as a possible vehicle for cheating, at worst. But lately, educators have begun changing their tune on mobile phones. Abilene Christian University will hand out Apple’s iPhone 3G smartphone to two-thirds of this year’s entering class of 950 freshmen. Students will be expected to use the devices to brainstorm ideas and get virtual handouts and podcasts during class. Instructors will use them for such tasks as monitoring attendance.
by Olga Kharif
Read Business Week Online
Wikis in Education: Teaching Students to Share Knowledge Knowledge
Teaching and learning have always had a collaborative element, but wiki technology has in recent years made collaboration central to the method of many educators. Since they can be edited by anyone with access to them, education wikis are ever-changing and evolving documents that ideally represent the wisdom of the student crowd. Teachers are constantly finding new and creative ways to use wikis. One college new media class is writing its own textbook, for instance. Science classes are using wikis to develop research proposals.
by Vivian Wagner
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