Cyber audit shows flaws in Boonville School District databases

BOONVILLE, Mo- On Tuesday Missouri Auditors released a report on the cyber security of the Boonville School District.

Boonville is the first district in the state to get a deep look into how it fends of hackers. The audit raised concerns with the districts plan on protection.

The reason why the audits were implemented was because schools contain extremely important information about their children. They know social security numbers, test scores and health concerns.

Missouri State Auditor, Nicole Galloway wants to protect children in the future, “I know as a mother of two young boys I don’t want to see their information fall into the wrong hands and I know there’s families across Missouri that share the same concerns.”

I talked with Superintendent Mark Ficken who said he thought the report made the district look bad.

Galloway said that was not her intention, “We found the Boonville School district does have some policies in place and some procedures in place but those need to be improved and there is more work that they can do.”

Boonville is urged to have a plan in place if a cyber attack were to happen, have passwords changed frequently, and only limited access to kids records.

“It is so important because when personal information falls in the wrong hands you can exploit children and certainly we all have a shared goal of keeping them safe,” says Galloway.

The district agreed that there needed to be changes made and were working to get it finished before July.

Their IT technician did not wish to talk with ABC17.