美國母親入侵學校電腦改兒女成績

Most parents would do anything to help their children succeed in school, but one Weisenberg Township mother took it too far, Lehigh County authorities say.

Catherine Venusto, a former Northwestern Lehigh School District employee, used her knowledge of the district's computer system — and the superintendent's password — to change her children's grades, state police said.

Her daughter went from a failing grade to a medical exception, according to court records, and her son went from a grade of 98 percent to an even more impressive 99 percent.

When state police detectives interviewed Venusto, 45, at her home last Thursday, she admitted changing the grades and also admitted using the superintendent's passwords to gain access to district emails and personnel files, according to court records.

Venusto said she logged on to the district's computer system, even after she had left her job as a secretary for the district, out of "curiosity and boredom," according to court records.

On Wednesday, Venusto's curiosity got her charged with three counts each of unlawful use of a computer and computer trespassing, all third-degree felonies. She was arraigned before District Judge Robert C. Halal and released on $30,000 unsecured bail.

Authorities say Venusto used the superintendent's information from Aug, 23, 2010, to February 2012 to gain access to the district's human resources system, which contained thousands of files associated with district policy, contract information, employee reports and personnel information.

Authorities also say she entered the district's email system by using the passwords of the superintendent and nine other district employees.

The investigation began on Feb. 24, 2012, when Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Holman reported that a former employee allegedly accessed the district's computer system using the superintendent's sign-in and password information, authorities said.

District officials had earlier suspected something was wrong when a high school principal called to report that some teachers were concerned that the superintendent was accessing the grading system to look at their grades.

Northwestern Lehigh Superintendent Mary Ann Wright said she was sick to her stomach when that call came in asking if she had been viewing student grades.

In fact, Wright never logged into students' grades.

The February 2012 call, Wright said, triggered an immediate shutdown of the computer system. That month, district officials tightened security and log-in procedures, but didn't detail the new measures that were put in place.

【新聞快訊】

據美國廣播公司7月19日報道，美國一位母親因爲入侵自己兒女學校的電腦篡改成績18日被法院傳訊，她一共受到相關6項重罪指控。

這名母親叫凱瑟琳，現年45歲。18日下午，她在賓夕法尼亞州利哈伊法院受到指控，其中三項罪名是關於非法使用電腦，另外三項罪行是關於非法入侵電腦和篡改數據。如果罪名成立，凱瑟琳最高可被判處42年監禁或者9萬美元的罰款。

據當地檢察官辦公室介紹，凱瑟琳在2008年到2011年4月間在利哈伊西北學區擔任祕書工作，她先後私自動用學區主管瑪麗安賴特的用戶名和密碼達110次之多，在2010年6月和2012年2月先後篡改了女兒和兒子的成績，私自查看了其他9位教職工的電子郵件賬戶，還進入人力資源的管理存盤內查看了“和學區政策、合同信息、員工報告以及人事問題相關的數千份文件”。

學區主管賴特18日早些時候發表聲明說：“我們對越權訪問事件感到抱歉。我們正在竭盡所能地阻止此類事件再次發生，目前，新的安全程序已經到位，它可以確保我們的系統受到更好的保護……這不是(凱瑟琳的)兩個孩子的過錯，如果他們要繼續在這裏上學，我們會給予必要的支持。”