Home use of the iPads is now on hold
It only took a week for high school students to hack their iPads once the L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) rolled them out.
According to the Los Angeles Times, students who received iPads for learning purposes at Theodore Roosevelt High School (which is part of LAUSD) were able to “hack” them after only one week. The hack allowed Theodore Roosevelt's 300 students to access websites like Facebook, Twitter and Pandora.
Westchester High School and the Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills also reported iPad hacks.
The students were able to hack the iPads -- which had security locks on them to prevent certain activities like social networks -- rather easily. According to students, all they had to do was delete their personal profile information. Without the profile, they could access the Web freely.
LAUSD has halted the use of the iPads at home until the situation can be figured out.
"Outside of the district's network ... a user is free to download content and applications and browse the Internet without restriction," two senior administrators said in a memo to the Board of education and L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy. "As student safety is of paramount concern, breach of the ... system must not occur."
Apple scored a $30 million contract from LAUSD back in June, which aimed to put an iPad in the hands of every student in LAUSD for educational purposes. LAUSD is paying $678 per iPad, which comes pre-loaded with educational software, but won't include a keyboard.
The school district also committed to spending "hundreds of millions of dollars" with Apple over the next two years, since they chose the company as their only tablet vendor.
This means that LAUSD better find a solution quick so that its millions of dollars don't go to waste. The iPads are needed both in school and at home for reading and homework purposes.
Source: The Los Angeles Times
It only took a week for high school students to hack their iPads once the L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) rolled them out.
According to the Los Angeles Times, students who received iPads for learning purposes at Theodore Roosevelt High School (which is part of LAUSD) were able to “hack” them after only one week. The hack allowed Theodore Roosevelt's 300 students to access websites like Facebook, Twitter and Pandora.
Westchester High School and the Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills also reported iPad hacks.
The students were able to hack the iPads -- which had security locks on them to prevent certain activities like social networks -- rather easily. According to students, all they had to do was delete their personal profile information. Without the profile, they could access the Web freely.
LAUSD has halted the use of the iPads at home until the situation can be figured out.
"Outside of the district's network ... a user is free to download content and applications and browse the Internet without restriction," two senior administrators said in a memo to the Board of education and L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy. "As student safety is of paramount concern, breach of the ... system must not occur."
Apple scored a $30 million contract from LAUSD back in June, which aimed to put an iPad in the hands of every student in LAUSD for educational purposes. LAUSD is paying $678 per iPad, which comes pre-loaded with educational software, but won't include a keyboard.
The school district also committed to spending "hundreds of millions of dollars" with Apple over the next two years, since they chose the company as their only tablet vendor.
This means that LAUSD better find a solution quick so that its millions of dollars don't go to waste. The iPads are needed both in school and at home for reading and homework purposes.
Source: The Los Angeles Times
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