The
TIS (Tablet in Schools) Project has finally hit some serious hiccups.
This
as the Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Phillip Paulwell
recently admitted in Parliament that the Contractors hire by the ministry to
procure Tablets for the TIS Project cannot prevent students from visiting
inappropriate websites as stated in the article “Gov't
Unable To Block Inappropriate Content On Tablets”, published Wednesday
March 4, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner.
Minister
of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Philip Paulwell made this admission
on Tuesday March 3rd 2015 during the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament.
Some
JA$114 million is being earmarked for the procurement of e-books and Web
content for the Tablets to replace the need for parents to purchase books as
noted in my blog
article entitled “JA$114
million spent on Content for TIS Project Tablets - JA$76 million on Math, English
and Science Content by January 2015 to stop Teachers Padding Book-lists for
Commissions”.
This
means that the Tablet will no longer be free, possibly costing JA$9000 by the
time the New School Term that starts September 2015 as predicted in my blog article
entitled “TIS
Project a Success with Boys - JA$9000 for Subsidized Tablets as TIS Project
replaces 600,000 Students School Books with e-books come September 2015”.
GOJ can’t stop TIS
Project Tablet Hacking – Tracking LBS using IMEI Lableing still works, however
Good
to note though the tracking Technology that's installed in the Tablets is
working, as Minister Paulwell report that five (5) of the nine (9) Tablets
reported Stolen thus far have been recovered, which translates to a 55.6%
success rate in the recovery of stolen TIS Tablet.
This
suggests that the use of LBS (Location Based Services) coupled with IMEI
(International Mobile Equipment Identification) Number Labelling of the Tablets
to restrict their access after being stolen is the mechanism I'd suspected in
my blog article
entitled “State
Minister Julian Robinson hopes Tablets boost Innovation in ICT - How TIS
Project Tablets are secured using GPS and IMEI Labeling”.
In
short, the report of Students hacking the Tablets back in October 2014 centered
on the removal of the access to inappropriate Websites i.e. Pornography
websites and Social Medias Websites such as Facebook as noted in my blog article
entitled “Male
Student hacks TIS Project Tablet as Distribution Expands - Tablets Problems
require Creative Jamaican solutions to deliver Lessons to the Learners We Teach”.
However,
based on the fact that the Tablet can be recovered, these hacks do not involve
the disabling of the LBS or the CMS (Content Management Software). Kid, after
all, are blissfully unaware that their Tablet are being tracked by the four (4)
Contractors hired to procure the Tablets and are merely interested in seeing
some porn.
These
four (4) contractors are:
1.
Innovative Corporate Solutions
2.
Digicel Jamaica
3.
Productive Business Solutions
4.
GeoTech Vision Enterprises Limited
So
how did this all begin? And were there early warning signs about the hacking of
TIS Project Tablets? Even more interesting, what can be done to prevent this
from getting potentially worse?
GOJ can’t stop TIS
Project Tablet Hacking – Hacking Problem as conveyed by the Statistics
This
admission means possibly thousands of High School Boys (and Girls with high
level of curiosity!), may be trying to access these inappropriate websites as I
type as the knowledge spreads among the children.
Already
the Stats are not looking good for this Test Pilot for the TIS Project if this
problem spreads, based on the words of Minister of Technology Phillip Paulwell:
1.
25,000 Tablets under the TIS Project for
distribution
2.
17,000 TIS Tablets distributed up until
December 2014
3.
18,000 TIS Tablets distributed by the
end of December 2014
4.
7000 Tablets distributed in early weeks
of the Easter term in 2015
The
total 27,000 Tablets, the eventual target that is just another two thousand
(2000) tablets added on to the 25,000, is broken down by the four (4)
Contractors is as follows:
1.
10,500 Tablets from Innovative Corporate
Solutions
2.
5,500 Tablets from Digicel Jamaica
3.
5,500 Tablets from Productive Business
Solutions
4.
5,500 Tablets from GeoTech Vision
Enterprises Limited
For
this problem to be significant enough to warrant more attention, it has to
affect about 10% of Tablets or roughly 2,500 Tablets. Since Minister Paulwell
isn’t forthcoming with those figures, we can safely assume that it’s becoming
noticeable but not statistically significant i.e. this may just be a Media
Storm in a Teacup!
Oddly
enough, this problem of children being able to access these inappropriate
websites is not new and was the main concern of acting principal of St James
High, Denzil Reid in December 2014 as noted in the article “Early
Hiccups For 'Tablets In Schools' - Education Minister, E-Learning Not Alarmed
By Teething Pains”, published Sunday December 14, 2014, The Jamaica Gleaner.
To
quote acting principal of St James High, Denzil Reid: “We were extremely happy
to know that we got such devices, but it has caused some negative things to
happen. Because the students have the tablets now they don't want to go to
class as before, because they want to hide away to use it. I can't even say for
negative things because we haven't found anybody visiting those negative or
undesirable sites, so to speak, because they always run when you are coming”.
This
is putting the JA$1.4 billion taken from the USF (Universal Service Fund) back
in 2013 to finance the TIS Project, which is a part of the E-Learning II
Project in jeopardy as noted in the article “$1.4b To Finance Tablet
Computers In Schools Programme”, Published Thursday December 19, 2013, The Jamaica Gleaner.
Many
of them might have peers that attend other high schools as many are from the
same communities; they can easily share what they’ve figured out in trying to
access these inappropriate websites and thus increase their chances of
breaching the CMS (Content Management System) on these Tablets.
So
the question begs, how does one access blocked websites on Tablets?
How to Access Blocked
Websites on an Android Device – Firefox and Opera Mini Browsers
Good
to get the obvious out of the way; these Tablets are not Branded Tablets i.e. Asus,
Lenovo, Huawei, as I’d speculated in my blog article
entitled “Tablet
In Schools Project launched for September 2014 – How Teachers Benefit as Female
interest in ICT Industry Blossoms”, but Generic “white Label” Chinese
Tablets that have been rebranded by each of the four (4) contractors for the
TIS Project.
This
means simply put, they are Tablets running Google Android, most likely Google
Android 4.3 Jellybean or Google Android 4.4 Kitkat.
Which
means the security settings to secure your child’s table s described in my blog article
entitled “How
to Lock down your Child’s Tablet or smartphone and Apps to Block, Protect and
Notify you of your Child’s whereabouts Online - Defense Against the Dark Arts”
can be bypassed.
The
CMS that the contractors installed on the Tablets disabled the Google Play Store as well as
access to inappropriate websites using a white list of these websites. I know
this as I was involved in a phone interview discussion hosted on Nationwide
News Fm 90 on Thursday 6:45pm Thursday 5th of March 2015 where the
topic of discussion was Tablets in TIS Project being hacked.
I
had explained during that phone interview that the students may have side-loaded
Apps onto the Tablets that allowed them to gain access to the Internet such alternative
Browsers such as Mozilla Firefox or even the Opera Browser as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “Opera Mini Browser
continues to be Growing Strong as smartphone Growth marches forward”.
The
Opera Mini Browser is also popular on Blackberry and smartphones and is available
on certain Nokia smartphones such as the Nokia X Series Smartphone s as reported
in my blog article
entitled “Opera
Browser for Nokia X Series – Discovery with Opera Turbo is a Speed Dial Away as
Opera is Riding West”.
How to Access Blocked
Websites on a Android Device – Free VPN Apps side-loaded via MicroSD Cards
Another
alternative is that they can also side-load VPN (Virtual Private Network) apps such
as Hola
Free VPN that would allows them to bypass any Internet setting set by the CMS
as noted in the article “How to
Access Blocked Websites on an Android Device”, published November 19, 2014
by TechVerse.
A
VPN is really you logging into the ISP (Internet Service Provider) in another
country, thus making it appear that you’re accessing the internet from their
ISP and not your local ISP from your Telecom Provider as explained in my blog article entitled
“How
to find Free TV online and how to Stream from Hulu or Netflix in Jamaica -
Jamaican Pirate of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides Streaming Restricted US
Content”.
For
this reason, persons who work online in the USA but reside in Jamaica often use
a VPN to mask their actual location, getting the best of American Content as
well as Online Jobs as explained in my blog article entitled
“Surfing
the Internet Anonymously using VPN - How to use Streaming Set Top Boxes over
VPN”.
Hola
Free VPN is one of many VPN Apps on the Google Play Store that you can download
as note d in the article “The
best free VPN services of 2015 for UK users: access blocked sites and surf the
web anonymously”, published 06 March 15 By Mike Bedford, PC Advisor.
These
Apps than be downloaded on a different smartphone or tablet, save on MicroSD
Card and then side-load into a Google Android Tablet. I’ve compiled a list of all the “free” VPN
that can be used by Smartphone and Tablet users to access blocked services on a
Telecom Providers 3G or 4g LTE Network:
1.
Cyberghost
2.
Hideman VPN
6.
TunnelBear
Please
note that these VPN aren’t really “free” by trialware; after a while they’ll
start wanting to upgrade you to a paid version or ask you to pay for premium
service. So it’s not entirely free, but just “free” enough to allow you to
visit that website that’s being blocked from your eyes.
VPN’s
are great for not only masking your IP Address but for bypassing blocked
features such as VoIP Calling as was the case when Digicel Blocked Viber back
in June 2014 as reported in my blog article entitled
“Digicel
blocks VoIP Services Viber and Nimbuzz in Haiti - Digicel losing International
Calling Revenue but will be worse when WhatsApp comes”
Anecdotal
reports at the time suggested that a lot of persons were using VPN on their
smartphones to get around Digicel’s blockade of Viber, accessing the Internet
from a Different IP address or Logical Ports over the Internet to make free
Calls.
If
many of those persons were teenagers, they may have transferred that knowledge
to Tablets and thus have figured out or were shown by adults how to use VPN to
bypass the CMS on the Tablets and access these inappropriate websites.
How to Access Blocked
Websites on a Android Device – Custom Google Drive, Dropbox Links
Finally,
if they are tech-savvy enough, they can also download the content from these
websites e.g. Porn video to High School sex video on a different computer at
home.
They
can then and share them via a Dropbox or Google Drive hyperlink, appropriately
shortened using a URL shortener as explained in my blog article entitled
“How
to use Dropbox, Google Drive and Sound File Sharing Websites to Share and
Promote your Content online - Sharing is Caring”.
These
are custom URL that are difficult to block, as the teacher may also wish to
share valuable content or even several Dropbox folder with Homework as
explained in my blog
article entitled “How
to share Public Dropbox Folders, allowing Downloads from your Dropbox Account -
Sharing is Caring up in the Clouds”, making them very difficult to white
list.
TIS Tablets not hacked,
just VPN access – Whitelist needs to include VPN to avoid Problem spreading
So
in finishing, this isn’t a hack, merely a lack of education on the part of the Administrators
of the TIS Project of the Parents and Students.
Parents
need to be vigilant, learn about the Technology and take interest in their
child’s Tablet usage as noted in my blog article
entitled “How
to Lock down your Child’s Tablet or smartphone and Apps to Block, Protect and
Notify you of your Child’s whereabouts Online - Defense Against the Dark Arts”.
This
involvements is something that the four (4) Contractors may have failed to
reinforce in their training sessions with the parents and students, as
Technology peeps aren’t exactly strong on the pedagogy and Andragogy or teaching
Adults how to use Smartphones, Tablets and Laptops.
These
four (4) contractors hired by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and
Mining need to get on top of the situation before it grows to more than 10%.
If
it blossoms beyond 10% of the Tablet population then this storm in a Teacup
that may become a mini-scandal on the same level as Minister of Youth and
Culture Lisa Hanna involving the presence of Sexual Education Text in Children’s
Homes that was a big ticked news item back in June 2014 as reported in the
article “Hanna
wants report on sex education programme in children's homes”, published
Tuesday, June 17, 2014, The Jamaica
Observer.
JFJ
(Jamaica for Justice), a non-profit NGO (Non Governmental Organization)
concerned with seeking Justice for the disenfranchised Jamaican, soon lost its
head when the Former Executive Director Carolyn Gomes quit the Executive Board
as reported in the article “Gomes Goes -
JFJ Apologises For Sex Education Course, Former Executive Director Quits Board”,
Published Wednesday June 18, 2014, The
Jamaica Gleaner.
This
may be the fate of those involved in the TIS Project if the 10% threshold of “hacking”
the Tablets to access inappropriate websites, which may include pornography,
gets out of control.
No comments:
Post a Comment