{"id":3157,"date":"2020-10-29T19:19:35","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T23:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=3157"},"modified":"2020-11-06T10:53:32","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T15:53:32","slug":"cuny-drops-proctortrack-after-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2020\/10\/cuny-drops-proctortrack-after-hack\/","title":{"rendered":"CUNY Drops Proctortrack After Hack"},"content":{"rendered":"

CUNY terminated plans to implement remote proctoring services by Proctortrack after the software\u2019s parent company, Verificient, was hacked. The security breach on October 13 forced Proctortrack to halt services to its customers and publicly apologize.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an <\/span>update<\/span><\/a> to CUNY\u2019s academic continuity guidelines, the university wrote \u201cdue to recent <\/span>events<\/span><\/a>, the University will not proceed with the implementation of Proctortrack as previously announced.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The event referenced is a security breach that forced the company to suspend services for about a week due to an audit by independent cybersecurity company, Network Intelligence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an update released on October 22, Verificient stated that the independent audit concluded that \u201cno personally identifiable information was accessed in the attack.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The statement went on to clarify that no data was altered, <\/span>no credit card account numbers were stolen, and no log-in credentials were compromised. Instead, hackers managed to access an outdated quality assurance testing server, leak source code, and disable its marketing site.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Users who visited Verificient\u2019s website were \u201cRickrolled,\u201d a popular meme that redirects users to a video of Rick Astley\u2019s \u201cNever Gonna Give You Up.\u201d Images of the hacked website appeared on Reddit.<\/p>\n

The hackers also sent out an email to customers from Verificient\u2019s customer support email address containing racial slurs, according to users on Reddit who received the emails. The company apologized \u201cfor the hurt and confusion,\u201d caused by the emails.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Instead of Proctortrack, CUNY\u2019s guidelines list papers, presentations, annotations, e-portfolios, take-home exams and limited in-person exams following campus reopening safety guidelines as the preferred methods of learning assessment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Students are satisfied with alternative methods of assessment that don\u2019t involve in-person contact. \u201cI\u2019d rather not be forced to take the train during a pandemic,\u201d Jacqueline Babek, a senior at Hunter College said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an email, Hunter College Undergraduate Student President Hardik Bhaskar said <\/span>there is \u201ctoo much risk, cases are rising and we do not want a bunch of students coming in to just take a test. I don\u2019t think admin will push for that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bhaskar also acknowledged the university\u2019s decision to drop Proctortrack, and said \u201cthey will, however, allow teachers to continue using lockdown browsers that are already in implementation for the semester.\u201d It is unclear if the lockdown browser being used is a Verificient program like ProctorLock. CUNY did not respond to requests for comment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The university confirmed in its updated guidelines that it plans to work with the Computer Information Systems department to explore alternative remote proctoring tools to be used in the Spring 2021 semester.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After weeks of student petitions and unanswered questions, CUNY decided to drop Proctortrack after its parent company, Verificient, was hacked. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":3158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3157"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3164,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157\/revisions\/3164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}