wired.magazine blackboard

What happened to Blackboard?

Jul 21, 2015 · Last year, according to CB Insights, the industry received $1.87 billion in venture funding, a massive leap from the $385 million it received in 2009. And as investor interest in …

What are some common web bugs in blackboard and Follett?

Aug 10, 2019 · 5,000 Schools, 5 Million Records. Demirkapi found a series of common web bugs in Blackboard's Community Engagement software and Follett's Student Information System, including so-called SQL ...

How vulnerable is blackboard to hackers?

Back to the Blackboard. No matter what city you live in, it’s likely you have at least one daily deal website catering to your area. Unfortunately, with so many sites offering so many deals ...

What's the difference between Blackboard and Follett's Software?

Oct 10, 2011 · To date, the SFW website has explored the trigonometry of compound angles, the chemical formula of orthosilicic acid, the history of ebonics, and the geography of …

What are the bugs in Blackboard?

For Blackboard, those bugs ultimately allowed access to a database that contained 24 categories of data, everything from phone numbers to discipline records, bus routes, and attendance records —though not every school seemed to store data in every field. Only 34,000 of the records included immunization history, for instance. More than 5,000 schools appeared to be included in the data, with roughly 5 million individual records in total, including students, teachers, and other staff.

Who is Andy Greenberg?

Andy Greenberg is a senior writer for WIRED, covering security, privacy, and information freedom . He’s the author of the book Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers. The book and excerpts from it published in WIRED won a Gerald Loeb Award for... Read more.

Why did Demirkapi start digging up the two companies' security flaws?

Demirkapi says he started digging up the two companies' security flaws out of a combination of teenage boredom and an ambition to learn more about cybersecurity and web-based hacking. "I have a passion to, I guess, break things," Demirkapi says. "I really wanted to learn about web application testing, so I thought, well, how cool would it be to test on my own school’s grading system?"

Who is Roger Kisby?

Roger Kisby. A few short decades ago, the archetypal hacker was a bored teenager breaking into his school's network to change grades, à la Ferris Bueller. So today, when cybersecurity has become the domain of state-sponsored spy agencies and multibillion-dollar companies, it may be refreshing to know that the high school hacker lives on—as do ...

Who is Bill Demirkapi?

Teen Hacker Bill Demirkapi. After Demirkapi began to find bugs in Blackboard and Follett's software, he says he struggled to get the companies to take him seriously. In the winter of 2016, he initially tried to contact Follett by asking his school's director of technology to contact the company on his behalf.

Did Demirkapi sue Blackboard?

With Blackboard, whose sensitive data he had accessed in the process of testing the software's security, he worked out a contract that stated the company wouldn't sue him , and in return he'd keep the company's vulnerabilities secret until they were fixed—after refusing an initial draft in which Blackboard tried to prevent him from telling anyone even after the patches went through.

What is an IB test?

Unlike AP tests, which are typically separate from high school grades, the IB results are intended to reflect a student’s work for the year. IB students are often granted college admission based on predicted grades, and they submit their final results when they become available over the summer.

How many subjects are required for IB diploma?

The latest on artificial intelligence, from machine learning to computer vision and more. In normal times, IB diploma students select six subjects, from options such as physics and philosophy, and receive final grades determined in part by assignments but mostly by written tests administered in the spring.