Higley schools IT director fired for 'alien spy software'

Higley schools IT director fired for

www.ab c15.com

GILBERT, AZ -- The former director of IT for the Higley Unified School District has resigned amidst an investigation that he installed software to spy for aliens on school computers.

Superintendent Denise Birdwell said Brad Niesluchowski chose to resign after being given a notice of termination in October.

Dr. Birdwell said Niesluchowski installed the software program SETI@home on nearly 5,000 HUSD computers.

SETI stands for the "Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence."

Birdwell said the program caused the district's computers to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The dist

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 1-12-2009 by ndnwotah]

Hey ATS, my first post, and I Love this site. Been reading for years.

I think this guy had contact before they cut him.
Tell me your thoughts.

Alien spy software?!?!?! Obama should have disclosed this already.

I could see this happening in schools here in AZ.
I wonder how many other people have done this and are still doing this.

www.ab c15.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by ndnwotah


whats the big deal, anyone can get the SETI program. Theyve had that shared program out for a while now.

The guy was an idiot for installing that on the school systems computers though. He got caught, tough luck.....

Originally posted by ndnwotah


Hey ATS, my first post, and I Love this site. Been reading for years.

I think this guy had contact before they cut him.
Tell me your thoughts.

Alien spy software?!?!?! Obama should have disclosed this already.

I could see this happening in schools here in AZ.
I wonder how many other people have done this and are still doing this.

www.ab c15.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

They just mean software to look for aliens... not alien produced software.

SETI@HOME is perhaps the most popular form of Public-Resource Computing (which is a Wide Area Distributed Compter System using the Internet to connect multiple computers into one large Super Computer). It has been around for over a decade. You can find out more about the SETI@HOME project at setiathome.berkeley.edu....

That said, this particular person should have followed the #1 Rule of I.T. and followed the C.Y.A.W.P. principle. He should have gotten authorization before he installed this software system-wide.

It's not a hard-sell either. I maintained two substantial Server Farms for a large Natural Foods Cooperative. As their Server Farms ran 24/7 but were only in use from 9am-9pm I suggested we utilize their 12 hours of idle time to help in Distributed Computing projects that benefit humanity (How to Join Distributed Computing Projects That Benefit Humanity). Management loved the idea and after proposing it to the Board of Directors got the official Green-Light.

Apparently, this person did not do that. He skipped the approval process and clandestinely installed this software system-wide.

I think his employer's argument that it wore out the computers prematurely and increased their power consumption bill is absolutely ridiculous, however, they were justified in firing him because he basically installed something that was unauthorized. It doesn't matter if it was unlicensed Software, a Trojan, a Backdoor, Spyware, or a legitimate Public-Resource Computing program. If it is unauthorized, then he had no right installing it without approval from Upper Management.

Hopefully though, this will at least bring more awareness to the SETI@HOME project nevertheless.

[edit on 1-12-2009 by fraterormus]

Welcome to ATS, nice post! And may I say, i don't think I can ever eat chicken nuggets anymore. Thanks, freaky avatar

Also, found anything else about the "alien spyware?" I wonder if they meant "program to search (or spy for) aliens??

*edit to add: yes i know its not a chicken but it made me think of chickens (the avatar)

[edit on 1-12-2009 by ganja]

I've had this software
it's a form of distributed computing
meaning it uses unused resources from all computers connected to the host computer.

to do this in a school is stupid

it's just software to listen to outer spacial waves

kind of like trying to keep an open ear for alien morse code if you will

Originally posted by The_Zomar
They just mean software to look for aliens... not alien produced software.

I can see why they were so upset about finding the software running 24/7 on all their computers.
An idle computer consumes so much less electrical power than a computer with a pegged cpu at 100% all the time.
Not to mention all the heat that is generated from the cpu that needs to be cooled by air conditioning.

reply to post by ndnwotah


Alien spy software? Huh.
SETI@home just uses idle CPU cycles to help with the search of radio signals from deep space. The idea is to take advantage of the millions of idle computers around the world to help process all the raw data from the SETI project. The program has been going on for years, I had it on my computer and it never caused any problems. It is really quite harmless. It does not cause the computer to run 24 hours, 7 days a week as the article states.

Originally posted by Erasurehead
reply to post by ndnwotah

 

Alien spy software? Huh.
SETI@home just uses idle CPU cycles to help with the search of radio signals from deep space. The idea is to take advantage of the millions of idle computers around the world to help process all the raw data from the SETI project. The program has been going on for years, I had it on my computer and it never caused any problems. It is really quite harmless. It does not cause the computer to run 24 hours, 7 days a week as the article states.

The BOINC client will eat 100% CPU if you let it. You need to configure the CPU limiting function to reduce the load on the CPU.
By default it will want 24/7

Here is a link to some testing that was done on Intel CPU's under load vs idle.
www.tomshardware.com...

For example an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 at 100% CPU usage will consume 101 more Watts than at idle.


[edit on 1-12-2009 by pedroroach]

How did he get it on every computer without someone knowing?

Once they found out what was the harm in explaining how it works and why wouldn't they understand?

Why wouldn't they give him a second chance, stand him in the corner for a while and make him remove it all with a warning?

Something more to this. Maybe it was an excuse to fire him.

Originally posted by badgerprints
How did he get it on every computer without someone knowing?

Once they found out what was the harm in explaining how it works and why wouldn't they understand?

Why wouldn't they give him a second chance, stand him in the corner for a while and make him remove it all with a warning?

Something more to this. Maybe it was an excuse to fire him.

THERE IS NO DAMN CONSPIRACY HERE! I am in IT, I can roll out a patch or update to everyone else's computer from my own if I want to. I have 6 servers beside me, with one command line I can install software to every one of those machines.

First post should be within the introduction section.

From there you will need 20 posts to original posts from other users, before you can post like this.

Just a heads up.

Also...good thread. I look forward to reading others you make.

But, introductions first.

Originally posted by Erasurehead
reply to post by ndnwotah

 

Alien spy software? Huh.
SETI@home just uses idle CPU cycles to help with the search of radio signals from deep space. The idea is to take advantage of the millions of idle computers around the world to help process all the raw data from the SETI project. The program has been going on for years, I had it on my computer and it never caused any problems. It is really quite harmless. It does not cause the computer to run 24 hours, 7 days a week as the article states.

Seti @ home is useless software. As I have posted in another thread, even IF the SETI people ever found anything out there, we would be the last to know about it. I have seen this software seriously impede a variety of computer systems based on the preferences of small groups just looking to add up their SETI points.

No distributed software like this should EVER be installed on any computer you don't own. If You have had no issue with it, doesn't mean that either a) this software can't be exploited, b) this software wont have an error which may render the host computer useless or c) this software may interfere with processes that the computer in question was actually intended for.

Not only should this guy have been fired, he should be responsible for the cleanup.

..Ex

reply to post by v3_exceed


Oh yes I agree. Only on equipment you own. Any real IT pro would not dream of doing this to 5000 computers at work. I have seen people get fired for doing far less.