Fake dishonest websites are the most recent threat for distant college students

Remote testing service Honorlock is utilizing pretend reply websites to tempt and catch college students who attempt to cheat on on-line exams, in response to a report by The Markup. When a scholar visits considered one of these “honeypot” websites throughout a web based take a look at, the positioning mechanically sends knowledge again to the scholar’s distant testing software program, indicating that the scholar is trying to cheat.

As famous on Honorlock’s site, the service is utilized by over 300 academic establishments, together with the University of Maryland, University of Florida, Arizona State University, and the University of Massachusetts Boston. At its core, Honorlock faucets into college students’ webcams throughout exams and makes use of AI to alert distant human proctors of any suspicious exercise, akin to if a scholar takes out their telephone throughout an examination.

But, as The Markup notes, it additionally makes use of what it calls “seed sites” (PDF), the place it hosts “seeded test questions to help detect use of secondary devices or other conduct prohibited by Testing Organizations.”

Kurt Wilson, the scholar interviewed in The Markup’s report, compiled a list of honeypot site addresses utilized by Honorlock. There are presently 5 energetic domains: examequip.com, buzzfolder.com, gradepack.com, quizlookup.com, and wikicram.com. Each web site is sort of plain-looking, and all of them function a homepage that accommodates a generic record of ideas for college kids. Under their “Blog” tabs, you’ll discover a assortment of random take a look at questions, with each query presenting two choices: “Show Answer” and “Hide Answer.” Click both possibility, and also you’ll hear a wierd chime out of your audio system — no reply is ever revealed or hidden.

Honorlock even has a patent for the technology behind its honeypot websites, which works into extra element about what sort of data these websites gather. When a scholar accesses considered one of these websites, it sends their IP tackle, machine data, mouse motion, clicks, and something they sort to Honorlock’s server. The Markup confirmed this when digging into the websites’ supply code and community exercise. Its honeypot websites additionally declare they’ll detect if a scholar is utilizing a secondary telephone, pill, or one other machine to entry solutions by evaluating IP addresses between units.

Other take a look at proctoring instruments have been criticized as nicely, particularly as colleges and instructors struggled with implementing at-home testing-taking within the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, one expertise specialist on the University of British Columbia criticized his faculty’s use of examination proctoring service, Proctorio, and received sued by the corporate for exposing the methods it tracks college students’ “abnormal” eye motion and information college students’ rooms throughout exams. Another service, Examity, makes use of reside human proctors to look at college students take exams via Zoom.

While dishonest is an issue, I don’t assume this degree of counterespionage surveillance ways makes use of the perfect strategy to forestall it. Remote testing providers can already doubtlessly compromise students’ privacy and should gasoline pointless nervousness, as college students fear as a lot about attempting to not appear suspicious as getting the suitable solutions.