美国母亲入侵学校电脑改儿女成绩

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.

【新闻快讯】

据美国广播公司7月19日报道，美国一位母亲因为入侵自己儿女学校的电脑篡改成绩18日被法院传讯，她一共受到相关6项重罪指控。

这名母亲叫凯瑟琳，现年45岁。18日下午，她在宾夕法尼亚州利哈伊法院受到指控，其中三项罪名是关于非法使用电脑，另外三项罪行是关于非法入侵电脑和篡改数据。如果罪名成立，凯瑟琳最高可被判处42年监禁或者9万美元的罚款。

据当地检察官办公室介绍，凯瑟琳在2008年到2011年4月间在利哈伊西北学区担任秘书工作，她先后私自动用学区主管玛丽安赖特的用户名和密码达110次之多，在2010年6月和2012年2月先后篡改了女儿和儿子的成绩，私自查看了其他9位教职工的电子邮件账户，还进入人力资源的管理存盘内查看了“和学区政策、合同信息、员工报告以及人事问题相关的数千份文件”。

学区主管赖特18日早些时候发表声明说：“我们对越权访问事件感到抱歉。我们正在竭尽所能地阻止此类事件再次发生，目前，新的安全程序已经到位，它可以确保我们的系统受到更好的保护……这不是(凯瑟琳的)两个孩子的过错，如果他们要继续在这里上学，我们会给予必要的支持。”