Internet Use in Schools and Security Issues - Article Example

The paper using real-life examples illustrates how this is failing against modern-day technology that is constantly being manipulated by cybercriminals. In addition, it demonstrates various types of cyber crimes in both private and public schools and what the local education authority is doing about them.

The internet is evolving at a very fast rate. As this happens, the number of threats affecting internet users is also evolving. These threats affect every internet user regardless of their level of operation. With cyber security events having evolved from Morris worm to slammer worm in 2003, the concern now is identifying and addressing security affecting internet users. There is fear that even criminals such as terrorist attackers are now engaging in cybercrime. The effects of this form of crime are worse than any other crime that existed in the past. For instance, Slammer Worm spread so fast, and in a span of 10 minutes, it affected a total of 90% of the vulnerable hosts. The issue is not generally security issues involved in the use of the internet, but the security issues with regard to emerging reliance on the internet in every level of operation from government offices and large organizations to schools and individual levels to perform virtually almost every task earlier done manually.

Productivity and maximum benefits for internet users will only be achieved if the security issues are kept at bay. This means that different organizations, government bodies, and researchers must improve their efforts in conducting research to identify and address emerging security issues. According to the findings, an integral factor in addressing this is investing in research and training to improve skills in internet use and related security issues.

Several types of research have been conducted with the aim of identifying security issues in internet use and identifying the changing trends of cybercrime. For instance, (Anderson 2001) identifies hacking as a major security issue while Roger (1999) identified an attack on a major company occurring every month. Research by Cranor et al (2002) also identified that tools such as SATAN are used to access computers without the knowledge of their owners. Once an attacker accesses the computer, he or she is in a position to scan the file system thus accessing personal information. Despite the fact that a lot has been researched with regard to security issues, cybercrime, and internet use, very little has been done on the effectiveness of methods applied by various organizations to address such security issues. In addition, very little has been done on the security issues and internet needs of stakeholders in learning institutions such as teachers and students. The lack of such relevant information makes it hard to understand the hindrances to effective internet use in schools.

This research was therefore aimed at identifying the internet needs of students and teachers, security issues, and the effectiveness of the local education authority in addressing them. In addition, it sought to understand if success has been achieved by different organizations in controlling cybercrime. This was achieved through the use of four schools as case studies. Primary data was collected from these schools and the local education authority through interviews, questionnaires, and group discussions.