Iraq Shuts Down Internet In Entire Country To Prevent Exam Cheating (softpedia.com) 92
An anonymous reader writes: The Iraqi government has ordered ISPs to shut down Internet access in the entire country to prevent exam cheating for Iraq's official exams for secondary and high schools. This is the second year in a row when Iraq does this, after the same thing happened in 2015. Companies like Akamai and Dyn also noted the government's poor decision on Twitter. It appears that Iraqi officials never heard of signal jammers and video cameras to combat exam cheating. The country's Internet went dark May 14-16th, between 05:00 AM and 08:00 AM GMT. An Iraqi ISP leaked on Facebook the content of an email it received from state officials.
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It's also a LOT more expensive to deploy than just shutting down the internet - which has zero capital cost.
Who cares about just the capital cost? You seem to be assuming that Iraq has zero Internet-based economy.
Re:Jammers and video cameras? (Score:5, Insightful)
Given it's a Big Test, it probably follows like other Big Tests you see, like the ones in Asia (where cheating Is basically an art).
Effectively, it's the One Big Test That Determines Your Future (And If You Still Have Parents). The results of the test determine if you're going to Overseas University with Scholarship, Local University, Trade School, not going at all. Parents have disowned kids who don't make it to overseas university, and if your parents are rich enough and don't really care about the test results, they can pay your way through overseas university as well.
The pressure is so immense that there is a distinct increase in teenaged suicides, and well, the incentive to cheat is quite up there. So creative types invent all sorts of cheat equipment - from hidden radios and ear pieces through to hidden storage devices with displays.
And if you think shutting down the internet for a few hours is bad, a few places have requested that people stop what they're doing for those hours - even banning traffic to give the students quiet to do the exams.
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Signal Jammers are all the way illegal in the US.
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cram for the test (Score:1)
Why not open book?
easiest solution (Score:1)
"It appears that Iraqi officials never heard of signal jammers and video cameras to combat exam cheating."
Seems easier to just turn off the internet than to send signal jammers to every school and ensure they are being used, and cover the correct frequencies.
Re: Iraqis never heard of signal jammers/cameras (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm also pretty certain they don't have the resources to equip every school with signal jammers and cameras - and staff to operate them. This is the cheap option.
How cheap it is compared to the business and productivity lost is unknown : )
Reminiscent of the arguments for putting pollution filtering on fossil fuel burning power plants vs. capturing pollution from every individual personal motor vehicle.
Re: Iraqis never heard of signal jammers/cameras (Score:5, Insightful)
How cheap it is compared to the business and productivity lost is unknown : )
Lost? I'm sure a lot of businesses had increased productivity that morning.
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Reminiscent of the arguments for putting pollution filtering on fossil fuel burning power plants vs. capturing pollution from every individual personal motor vehicle.
Not really. The cost of pollution controls on cars can be easily passed on to consumers because it is a tangible part on the automobile. On a power plant it will have to be factored into existing operational costs and how to divvy these up to the consumers (by usage, flat rate, additional incidental charge,etc).
You can't charge students taking a test for the camera pointing at them.
Cost allocation (Score:2)
You can't charge students taking a test for the camera pointing at them.
Sure they can. I've taken tests at testing centers where they did exactly that. What do you think those test fees are for? They just divide up the cost of operating the camera among the number of people taking the test. It's trivial to do that. I'm an accountant and in cost accounting we do stuff like this all the time. It's called cost allocation. Some costs are easy to attribute to a specific activity. Others aren't so easy but ultimately you have to allocate all the costs somehow and there is usu
Cheaper option: alert invigilators (Score:1)
This is the cheap option.
The cheap option is to make sure the exam invigilator is not asleep and have strict rules of what devices are allowed in exams i.e. ones with zero remote communication abilities. It's not hard to do.
Production gained (Score:1)
But on the other side, consider the productivity cost of having the wrong test scores assigned to kids. While test scores are far from perfect, that kind of wholesale inaccuracy can impact productivity for a generation.
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How cheap it is compared to the business and productivity lost is unknown : )
Multiply the number of Iraqi's who read slash dot by their hourly rate and the number of hours the internet was down. That's how much money was saved :D
Pen and paper (Score:5, Insightful)
Wouldn't it be simpler just to make the examination hall a technology free zone?
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Or perhaps just turn off all the power to the country. How insane!
Really... why are they allowing students to use any electronics during the exams? Problem solved.
Re: This is the future Republicans... (Score:2, Insightful)
They should use the Seattle solution. Make the Internet access so slow you can't get enough answers to greatly change your score.
hmmm (Score:2)
Preventing the poor from cheating (Score:3)
Therefore, only those who could afford a mobile device with a cache of wikipedia could cheat...
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Therefore, only those who could afford a mobile device with a cache of wikipedia could cheat...
This may help on some tests, but limits the effectiveness of nationwide tweets where "the answer to question n is three," etc...
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It is in effect from 0500 to 0800,
That is GMT, which was 8-11am local time according to TFA, so the rest of your post is BS.
How successful was this shutdown? (Score:1)
Is it really that easy to block access entirely? Are there any stories of people that found a way around the damage?
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arrogance (Score:2, Insightful)
Ah, the smell of western arrogance in the morning. Of course if some brown people decide something, it must be stupid.
Or it could simply be that they decided to not engage in an arms race with students, to take no chances (seems these exams are really important to them) and to make sure.
And it's not like the USA wouldn't be known for the same kind of knee-jerk reaction. Like when all air travel was shut down for a week following 9/11. Because... uh, because of what? Anyone seriously thought there were more
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a) because that is what's written between the lines in TFA.
b) nobody said it's a good thing. But isn't it funny how we can't evaluate a decision rationally and need to go to insults and humiliation instead of discussion pro and con?
Re:arrogance (Score:5, Interesting)
Who the fuck said anything about "brown people?"
If the same thing happened in say, Alabama, we'd comment on it too. .
Stupid is as stupid does, no matter the skin color or location. The sheer ridiculousness of taking net access away from an entire country "for the children" is what's being mocked here, not the technological abilities in Iraq.
As to your air travel strawman, The US was trying to determine what had happened. We had no way of knowing that there were NOT more terrorists lined up, and the severity of 9/11 was a bit higher than some kids cheating on an exam. In retrospect, that reaction might not have been warranted, but seeing as how nothing like that had ever happened before, there are worse ways we could have reacted.
Re:arrogance (Score:4, Funny)
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please, that invasion might have been painted as an overreaction but it was calculated and intended... by morons, maybe, but calculated nonetheless
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What country would that be? 9/11 caused the invasion of Afghanistan, which was involved.
Saddam Hussein's posturing about having WMD to attack Iran with, and refusal to allow UN weapons inspectors in, along with strong indications that he had the weapons led to the invasion of Iraq.
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The sheer ridiculousness of taking net access away from an entire country "for the children" is what's being mocked here, not the technological abilities in Iraq.
So the Internet will be down for one pre-announced day. That's a big inconvenience, granted. But why is it so ridiculous if this is the national exam day where, apparently, basically everyone takes their exam? And why does it have to be ridiculous, stupid and all those terms? Someone made a decision and decided that this is bigger than that. We may disagree (I do as well), but why humiliate and insult?
The US was trying to determine what had happened.
It wasn't clear? That is what you're saying? It wasn't absolutely crystal clear what had happened? Please,
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They are religious nutjobs, grant you that. But if they're so stupid, why exactly are you guys so afraid of them enriching Uranium? At least get your lies lined up, ok?
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Such as the lie you just told about anyone worrying about Iraq enriching uranium rather than Iran enriching uranium?
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Ay, my bad. I got that mixed up. Iraq was with invisible WMDs, right.
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http://www.thepoliticalinsider... [thepoliticalinsider.com]
They look quite visible in the photos I have seen, did you miss that? But, in reality, it wasn't really about the WMD, it was about Saddam denying entry to the UN required weapons inspectors, and threatening Iran with a gas attack if they attacked Iraq.
It was all posturing, but posturing that risks your country being invaded to prevent the usage of weapons that you know you don't have seems like an invitation to disaster. Would you have rathered the US sit back and let Sad
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You mean the chemical weapons that the USA had sold him many years ago to gas the Kurds? Yes, everyone knows about those. But Bush claimed that he had many more and the ability to build as many as he wants. You forgot the nice invention of chem factories built into trucks that Cheney presented to the media as fact?
Saddam denying entry to the UN required weapons inspectors
Wrong. There was some back and forth over those, but eventually they were allowed in and completed their report.
let Saddam gas Iran like he gassed the Kurds in 88?
With the support of the USA? He had already used chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq w
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The US solution is the best. Everyone passes. Everyone is a winner.
I used to be amazed while I worked at a University with first year students. I was literally the first person in their academic life where failure actually meant halt and go no further until you pass. Watching what happens at primary school (not in the US) these days makes me cry. A report card with F F F F F and the student happily progresses to the next grade. Shit when I went through school they actively made people repeat grades. Where I
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Worse than you think. Texas now allows a "kid" up to 26 to stay in high school. Friend is a teacher, unbelievable stuff happening. He has told me stories like, principle to teacher: Johnny's grade is too low, he needs to pass, teacher back to principle: What grade would you like me to give johnny?, C. Johnny was flunking big time, but graduation rates are too low, so we need to pass more. And those exams are a joke, I thought you had to pass to graduate, nope not the case. As my friend says, the kids run th
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Principal. Interesting to see people who are unable to spell complaining about the low standards in schools....
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Good catch, did not use the preview button to check. Bad me.
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True, stupidity at the highest level.
When I went to school, you would repeat a grade if you failed, but not in the first 4 years, when you were still a small kid and wouldn't understand it. You could also change school if you fail, or are in danger of failing.
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What the fuck are you on about regarding Brown people? Can you kindly point out where that's being said?
This seems more like 'Eastern' make shit up to make people feel guilty syndrome to me.
And that with their TLD (Score:3)
sounds like it's test for Iraqi officials (Score:1)
What the heck is the point? (Score:2)
What did cheaters do before the internet?
It's far more effective to get kids to arrive in uniform; leave their school bags and phones/tablets/smartwatches outside and have good spacing between tables and a person present in the classroom to monitor activities.
Do the old school teacher trick and leave the room for a bit. Often you'll see desperate cheaters frantically checking to see if you've gone far and what the brightest students notes are. Cheating children are easily caught.
If you have a budget f
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I saw a series of pictures posted the other day with some of the things confiscated from exams.
Like calculators that have been hollowed out and the keypad is removable to expose the phone inside.
Devious little buggers. Holds a lot more info than a long sleeve can cover.
I guess the internet isn't economically vital (Score:2)
Given the precarious conditions, I can only assume that they figure turning off the internet won't have that great an economic impact.
Entire country? (Score:2)
But the Ieaqi government doesn't control the entire country.
What about ISIS, or the Kurds,
Better Proctoring (Score:2)
The real solution is better proctoring, do they have a proctor shortage in Iraq?
And... (Score:1)