The recent break-in and vandalism of an online charter school's primary eMail program raise questions about the safety and security of learning delivered via the internet.

A 15-year-old student enrolled in California's virtual Choice 2000 Charter High School broke into the school's eMail and administrative software system Sept. 29 and erased two days' worth of eMail correspondence and student attendance records.

The student "got into our system and basically told our auditing and eMail system to destroy itself," said Dan King, director of Choice 2000 online high school. "It's important to note that he did not get into our online classes."

Choice 2000's classes are held in a teleconference format similar to an internet chat room, where more than 40 students can attend at one time. In this format, teachers may present other information, hold discussions, or answer student questions. In addition to teleconferencing, teachers and students communicate regularly through eMail.

The online charter school uses World Group software for eMail communication and attendance auditing. "We use an entirely different software package for the administration of our classes, called Interwise. That system was not harmed," King said.

The records tampering occurred shortly after the student hacker, a minor, had been suspended from using World Group as punishment for another online infraction.

"He had gotten into a couple of his buddies' [home] computers and tampered with them, so I suspended him from using World Group, which means no personal eMail for a couple of days. He was not barred from classes; he just had to send the eMails directly to me. But I guess that made him angry," King said.

The school's director of technology was able to trace the intrusion to the student, and the administration immediately reported the incident to the authorities, King said.

Investigators believe the student used an illegal account to get online and delete the information.

"We believe he basically gave another student's account the powers of a system operator and got into the school using that account. Right now, we estimate $18,000 in damages for time spent and equipment replaced," said Deputy David Cobb, lead investigator on the case with the Riverside Sheriff's Department.

King places the estimate somewhat higher.

"We estimate this has cost about $20,000 so far. That includes the loss of the average daily attendance records for those two days. It has taken a major effort to get back on track," he said.

California uses average daily attendance (ADA) to determine the amount of funding a school receives. "I don't think we will actually lose those two days, since this is a special case. The state will probably just look at the ADA for the days before and the days afterwards and estimate from there, so that loss will be recouped," King said.