Web-based E-mail Recommendation

September 15, 2003

Environmental Scan:

In August 2003 immediatelyfollowing the LovSan virus, several computers on the DPS Network (DPSNet) were infected by the electronic mail (e-mail) virus SoBig. All of the infections of SoBig on DPSNet were the result of users who were accessing non-DPS e-mail using the World Wide Web. The use of web-based e-mail from sources such as Hotmail, Yahoo!, and AOL has grown significantly over the last few years, consistently showing up in the Top 10 Internet Use Reports at DPS.

As a part of the follow-up procedures in the incident response of LovSan and SoBig an evaluation of issues surrounding the use of web-based e-mail and DPS was made.

Statement of Problem:

An evaluation of the LovSan and SoBig viruses’ impact to DPS as well as other issues surrounding web-based e-mail has identified the following problems DPS will need to address:

  1. Part of the mandates of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2000 states that schools have to protect children from content deemed “harmful to minors” when using e-mail, chat rooms, and World Wide Web. As Web-based e-mail is outside the control of DPS, there are no controls limiting the potential content of those e-mails. There is a potential risk that content in unfilterede-mails could be deemed inappropriate under CIPA mandates putting DPS at risk to lose Federal E-Rate funding for non-compliance.
  2. Also since web-based e-mail systems are beyond the control of DPS, there are no guarantees for the quality or existence of antivirus scanning. The lack of adequate antivirus on webbased e-mail providers is evidenced by the number of machines that became infected with SoBig from web-based e-mail.
  3. Currently, DPS does not provide e-mail to the student population. As students are required to become more technologically literate, they will be expected to know how to effectively communicate using e-mail. Some faculty members across the district are using e-mail as part of their curriculum to send out assignments as well as communicate with resources outside of DPS and in some cases across the world.

Recommendations:

The growing importance of electronic mail for students cannot be denied. The following recommendations help protect DPS from non-compliance with CIPA, yet satisfy curriculum needs.

  1. A recommendation will be made to amend Internet Use procedures to discourage the use of web-based e-mail. Reports will be generated each month from the District’s Internet Filtering system detailing the use of web-based e-mail each month.
  2. DPS will conduct an evaluation of web-based e-mailservices that are targeted to school districts for student use. If a web-based e-mail service can be found that satisfies DPS’ needs and legal mandates it will be recommended for adoption.
  3. District staff must be informed of the existing policy that DPSNet is designed and maintained for DPS business and educational purposes only.

Anticipated Outcomes:

Providing a DPS-based solution for student e-mail helps the district ensure CIPA mandates are met while still encouraging technological skill development. Additionally, DPS will have greater control over the use of electronic mail and can further encourage the use of group collaboration by taking advantage of advanced features such as calendaring and task lists.

9/8/2003 3:39 PMDRAFT FOR DISCUSSION