January 2009 - Issue No. 20

 

How Spyware Nearly Sent a Teacher to Prison 

Julie Amero faced 40 years behind bars for allegedly exposing her students to inappropiate images on her classroom computer. The 41-year-old former substitute teacher was convicted of four felony counts stemming from an Oct. 19, 2004, classroom incident.

 

Her computer was loaded with spyware that displayed pornography to her students. Four months pregnant at the time, she said she had only just learned to use e-mail. School officials, reacting to angry calls from parents, went to the police, who soon pressed criminal charges.

 

During her arrest she miscarried her baby and her career as teacher was finished. A heart condition landed her in the hospital and last year she was fired from Home Depot after an employee posted news clippings about her trial in the employee lounge.

 

After her conviction in January 2007, and after looking at the evidence, Alex Eckelberry, the CEO of Sunbelt Software and other security professionals concluded she was wrongly convicted. Last November she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge, paid U$100 fine and had her state teaching license revoked.

 

Spyware, malware, and viruses, can have dire consequences. The previous incident was just an extreme example of how wrong things can go. Some of our customers have been affected by similar threats making their computers unusable and putting their data at risk.

 

Besides being diligent about your backups and data recovery practices, you need to be sure your computer and network is being properly protected against these threats. Ask your IT Technician which steps are being taken to protect your network against Internet threats.

 

DataVault tips 

Please reply to our technical support emails when required

 

The DataVault Technical Support Team monitors your DataVault to ensure that it is working 24/7 and sends daily emails advising you of the status. Because all the DataVaults are “offshore” to us, we troubleshoot through remote access. If a DataVault is off-line, we cannot access it for monitoring or repair.

The client must take action and follow the instructions in our email guide and tell us the results. That is an interdynamic process between the client and us. Your reply is very important in order for us to correctly assess the problem and then to give you further instructions to solve it.