Security and Privacy Implications of Remote Proctoring for School Policies and Practices

高等教育机构稳步扩大了在线课程，特别是在新冠肺炎疫情爆发后。许多教师第一次面临这样的困境：如何在没有现场监考的网络环境下有效地管理考试、小测验和其他课堂作业。在线监考很快成为一种有吸引力的选择，可以在完成作业的同时远程监控学生。为了应对这种日益向在家学习（和考试）的转变，该项目将研究远程监考服务对学校政策和教育实践的安全和隐私影响。这个多管齐下的研究项目将研究这些服务如何影响学生、教育工作者和机构的安全和隐私。为应对COVID-19大流行，远程监控服务得到了广泛采用，这一研究计划受到了启发。然而，调查结果将更广泛地适用，因为院校可能会继续提供虚拟课程和在线技术服务来支持这些课程。研究活动是多学科的，将推进教学知识，并解决源于人类行为和安全和隐私选择的脆弱性。在线监考技术需要广泛的监测能力才能正常工作；这些包括观察行为（例如，屏幕捕获和视频/音频记录）和限制行为（例如，锁定浏览和安装网络防火墙规则）的系统。综合起来，这些监控和限制功能会给在此环境中完成作业的学生带来隐私和安全风险。研究活动将直接探讨学生、教育工作者和机构如何理解这种暴露及其影响。此外，该项目将确定有效和必要的监测和限制类型。研究活动和结果也将有助于可用的安全/隐私和教育研究的基础研究，考虑在线监考工具的教学方法和功效。该项目由安全与可信网络空间（SaTC）计划支持，该计划资助解决网络安全和隐私问题的提案，在这种情况下，特别是网络安全教育。SaTC项目与《联邦网络安全研究与发展战略计划》和《国家隐私研究战略》保持一致，旨在保护和维护网络系统日益增长的社会和经济效益，同时确保安全和隐私。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Higher education institutions have steadily expanded online course offerings, especially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time, many instructors were faced with the dilemma of how to administer exams, quizzes effectively, and other in-class assignments in an online setting in which live, in-person proctoring was not available. Online proctoring quickly became an attractive option to monitor students remotely while completing an assignment. In response to this increasing shift towards learning (and testing) from home, this project will examine the security and privacy implications of remote proctoring services as they pertain to school policies and educational practices. This multi-pronged research program will examine how these services impact students, educators, and institutions' security and privacy. The research program is inspired by the widespread adoption of remote proctoring services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the findings will be more broadly applicable as institutions will likely continue to offer virtual classes and online technology services to support those classes.The research activities are multidisciplinary and will advance knowledge in pedagogy as well as address vulnerabilities that stem from human behaviors and choices in security and privacy. Online proctoring technology requires extensive monitoring capabilities to work properly; these include systems for observing behavior (e.g., screen capture and video/audio recording) and restricting behavior (e.g., lock-down browsing and the installation of network firewall rules). In combination, these monitoring and restricting functionalities impose privacy and security risks on the students who are completing assignments in this setting. The research activities will directly address how students, educators, and institutions understand this exposure and its impact. Additionally, the project will identify the kinds of monitoring and restrictions that are effective and necessary. The research activities and findings will also contribute to fundamental research in usable security/privacy and educational research that considers the pedagogy and efficacy of online proctoring tools.This project is supported by the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program, which funds proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and in this case specifically cybersecurity education. The SaTC program aligns with the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan and the National Privacy Research Strategy to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.