State to test cybersecurity of Cape school district

On March 21, state auditors will begin a six- or seven-week visit to the Cape Girardeau School District to test the mettle of its cybersecurity safeguards.

"I see it as an opportunity to look at what we're doing and how we can improve," superintendent Jim Welker said during Monday's Board of Education meeting.

Welker said he wasn't aware of any security flags or breaches that have occurred in the district, but participation in the audit wasn't voluntary.

When board member Phil Moore asked whether the district had been invited to take part or was informed of its selection, Welker responded, "We were informed."

In September, State Auditor Nicole Galloway announced Cyber Aware School Audits would be conducted not only in Cape Girardeau, but four other districts around Missouri, to ensure cybersecurity buffers keep Social Security numbers, bank-account information and other sensitive data away from thieves.

"For every parent who has provided health records to the school nurse, authorized bank debits for a lunch plan, or exchanged emails with a teacher about concerns in the classroom, there are real consequences to having that information released to individuals who might seek to profit from or exploit it," Galloway said in a news release issued Sept. 30. "Parents deserve to know their children's schools have taken precautions to keep their children's personal information secure."

Jeff Glenn, vice president of the school board, said he thought Welker's position on the audit process should be embraced.

"I know the word 'audit' can have some painful connotations, but it's an opportunity for us to take a hard look at where we are with our technology," Glenn said.

Other districts chosen for the cybersecurity audit include the Boonville School District in Cooper County, Orchard Farm School District in St. Charles County, Park Hill district in Platte County and the Waynesville district in Pulaski County.

In other business, James Russell, the district's technology instructional specialist, said an app called Tour Builder will be deployed next month in a geography class at Cape Girardeau Central High School.

The app is in the testing phase but is available to the public. It uses a Google Earth plugin for its three-dimensional map.

"Kids can use this to really put some location on places and see what's out there, for education," he said.

Another app slated for use in local schools is Google Cardboard, a virtual-reality and augmented-reality platform in which a user inserts his or her smartphone into a cardboard viewer. It also provides a three-dimensional experience using places and things.

"We are going to be using Google Cardboard this year and hopefully in the future," Russell said.

Also on his wish list for use in social-studies classes is Google Expedition, which allows teachers to take students on virtual field trips to exotic locations they might never experience in person.

"Tour Builder is a program that allows a teacher to guide a student through a 3-D space or a map," he said, such as France's Palace of Versailles.