Sunday, August 28, 2016

Interesting.  Is this just a disgruntled employee or something more serious?  None of the states contacted actually check into his allegations? 
Exclusive: FBI raids home of ex-College Board official in probe of SAT leak
Federal agents searched the home of a former employee-turned-outspoken critic of the College Board, the standardized testing giant, as part of an investigation into the breach of hundreds of questions from the SAT college entrance exam.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation seized computers and other material on Friday from Manuel Alfaro, who left his job as executive director of assessment design and development at the College Board in February 2015
   Alfaro had contacted officials of seven state governments in recent months, accusing the College Board of making false claims about its tests when bidding for public contracts with the states.
   College Board spokesman Zach Goldberg said the leak of test questions constituted a crime.  “We are pleased that this crime is being pursued aggressively,” he said.  He dismissed Alfaro’s criticisms of the SAT test-making process as “patently false.”
The FBI raid comes after Reuters reported earlier this month (reut.rs/2b3gtyE) that the news agency had obtained about 400 unpublished questions from the newly redesigned SAT exam, which debuted in March.
   Reuters reported previously that the SAT (reut.rs/1RL4ZSI) and its rival, the ACT, (reut.rs/2akY3uf) are being systematically gamed by test-prep operators in Asia.  The SAT has proved particularly vulnerable to cheating because of its practice of reusing test questions.
   Alfaro emailed his complaints to the states of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Michigan and New Hampshire.
   Jeremy Meyer of the Colorado Department of Education said the state discussed Alfaro’s email with the College Board and was “satisfied with the response we received.”


Tools for my Computer Security students.
Got big data? The Cloud Security Alliance offers up 100 best practices
Big data is best known for its volume, variety, and velocity -- collectively referred to as the "3 Vs" -- and all three of those traits make security an elusive goal.  Targeting companies grappling with that challenge, the Cloud Security Alliance on Friday released a new report offering 100 best practices.
   The handbook is now available as a free download.


I should be able to pull something from these for the students I tutor in math.


Dogbert has a business model to die for…

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