Latest On LAUSD Cyberattack As Recent Audit Notes Past Vulnerabilities
In September 2020, cybersecurity auditors convinced Los Angeles Unified School District staff to hand over their passwords, tricked those employees into “execut[ing] malicious codes,” and gained access to a “limited number of Social Security numbers” stored on school district systems.
Those security liabilities were documented in a September 2020 report that will help district leaders decipher why the district fell victim to a ransomware attack over the Labor Day holiday weekend — 24 months to the day after the auditors finished their work.
Today on AirTalk, we give you a latest on the ransomware attack targeted at LAUSD with Kyle Stokes, KPCC & LAist senior reporter covering K-12 education.
Withfiles from LAist
Read Kyle’s piece “Two Years Before Online Attack, Auditors Warned Los Angeles Unified About Cybersecurity. How Bad Were The Problems They Found?” by clicking here.
High School Journalists Face Censorship Too – One L.A. Incident Showcases That
In the fall of last year, journalism students at LA’s Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in the San Fernando Valley covered a nearby anti-vaccination protest. The article said 240 L.A. Unified teachers had refused to be vaccinated and hadn’t shown up to work the previous month. It was newsworthy that the librarian was gone, the reporter wrote. The library closed, and the school remains without a librarian. What happened next surprised Adriana Chavira, a teacher at the school who advises the student newspaper. The librarian emailed Chavira that her privacy had been violated and asked that her name be removed from the online article. Chavira said state free speech and press laws protected the newspaper. The school retaliated against Chavira, leading to a three-day unpaid suspension, which she is vigorously appealing.
Today on AirTalk, we’re joined by higher education correspondent at KPCC, Adolfo Guzman-Lopez and executive director of the Student Press Law Center, Hadar Harris about this particular incident and the kinds of censorship that student journalists face.
We did reach out to Los Angeles Unified School District for comment on this, given that Daniel Pearl Magnet High School is one of its schools. An LAUSD spokesperson offered this statement:
“While we are unable to address ongoing personnel matters, we will continue to support our students and their journalistic endeavors at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School while also respecting the concerns of our school community.”
You can also listen to Gab lay out his picks on the ‘How To LA’ podcast, listen to that here
In Need Of More Great, Cheap SoCal Bites? New LAist Series Has Suggestions
Last week, LAist associate food and culture editor Gab Chabrán introduced a new guide for Southern Californians called “Cheap Fast Eats,” a series meant to showcase places where you can grab a quick meal that’s $10 or less. To kick things off he offered five options for readers in Pasadena, which had us wondering… what other food sports match this description in Los Angeles, Orange County, and Southern California at-large?
Today on AirTalk, Gab joins the program to talk about his recent piece “Introducing Cheap Fast Eats: LAist's Guide To Chowing Down For $10 Or Less. This Time We're In Pasadena” and share some other affordable options for you to check out!
Read Gab’s Cheap Fast Eats for Pasadena by clicking here
COVID-19 Update: Get A Booster Now Or Wait? Plus, Why Is Brain Fog So Misunderstood?
In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with Dr. Sam Torbati, co-chair of the department of emergency medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Topics today include:
- Should you get the new booster now or wait?
Can you get the COVID-19 booster and flu shot together?
- Why doubling up on flu and COVID-19 shot may have a downside
- What’s the deal with brain fog and why is it so misunderstood?
- A key to long covid may have to do with virus lingering in the body
Triple Play: Major League Baseball Decides On A Pitch Clock, Bigger Bases, And More
A Major League Baseball committee voted on Friday to institute a set of new rules with the goal of increasing the pace and action on the field. The rule changes include a 15-second pitch clock, two disengagements from the rubber, an increase the the size of the bases from 15 inches squared to 18 inches, and more.
Joining us today on AirTalk, host of All Things Considered, Nick Roman and host of NPR’s Morning Edition and the Up First podcast, A Martinez join Larry to discuss these changes and what it will mean for the game of baseball.
Many Underestimate How Much Their Random Acts Of Kindness Mean To Others. Is That Preventing People From Doing Them?
We often hear about the power of a random act of kindness, but it turns out most people underestimate just how meaningful those acts can be to others. A new study titled “A little good goes an unexpectedly long way: Underestimating the positive impact of kindness on recipients,” conducted several experiments gauging how much those performing random kind acts felt the act would impact others. And simply put, they thought it would have much less of an impact than it actually did once researchers talked to the recipient. Why are our internal calibrations so off? And could this be preventing people from engaging in small kind acts as often as they could be? Amit Kumar, assistant professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Texas, Austin and one of the authors of the new study, joins AirTalk to discuss the research, which also shows how contagious these acts can be.