Posted by SecExtra on January 24th, 2010

Are your children really protected from banned web sites in schools? Many are taking advantage of proxy servers in order to get around the schools’ internet security systems in order to play online games and use social network sites like Facebook. The risk is pupils logging on are putting themselves at risk of cyber crime.

In one secondary school classroom that was asked about proxy servers, every student had heard of them. While many schools are doing what they can by employing increasingly sophisticated software to prevent access to non-educational web sites, proxy servers make it extremely easy to bypass the restrictions.

What students are doing is working around other proxy servers used in schools to protect the machines from online threats. When one proxy server is banned, another one is ready for students to take advantage of.

M86 Security is what monitors these sites. Sadly, the numbers of proxies being tracked has jumped from 7,111 in 2006 to a whopping 91,490 in 2009. These proxies can carry viruses, malicious software, and can be controlled by cyber criminals. This is precisely what makes the situation such a dangerous one.

A lot of students are clueless of the fact that cyber criminals can actually access the information that is being put into the computer using proxy servers. Many think the next step to take is to provide technical solutions in order to educate children, teachers and parents of the problem.

The good news is newer security systems are beginning to help schools reduce the amount of proxy users. While the problem has not been completely eliminated just yet, there is hope for the near future.