by Emily Gersema - Jun. 5, 2010 07:11 AM
The Arizona Republic

Higley schools pull space-search software from 5,000 computers

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/ar...ftware.html#ixzz0vMJo5Qra

Thousands of Higley Unified School District computers have been cleared of software that helps scientists look for signs of life in outer space and that led to the arrest of a former district technologist.

Justin Greene, a Higley information technology director, says district computers have been programmed so that every time they are booted up, they automatically check for and remove the University of California-Berkeley software, BOINC.

Higley officials say the software began appearing on district computers in 2005 without their knowledge or permission.

A tech audit last year, led by Greene when he was a consultant on contract, revealed BOINC was installed on an estimated 5,000 Higley computers.

Officials then accused an IT administrator, Bradley Niesluchowski, of installing it on computers.

Niesluchowski resigned last fall, then was arrested by Gilbert police and accused of stealing computers and tech equipment and downloading pornography. He also was accused of placing some of the Higley equipment at Globe Unified School District while he was working on contract for his private business.

Higley officials estimated the software removal and missing equipment cost the district more than $1 million.

Niesluchowski, of Mesa, has denied the accusations, arguing he is the victim of a personal vendetta by Higley Superintendent Denise Birdwell.

He has not been charged. He and his attorney have not returned messages seeking comment.

The software, BOINC, is a program for the University of California-Berkeley's Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence project, also known as SETI@home.

Greene says UC-Berkeley SETI scientists and HUSD severed the link between the project and district computers in October.

Millions of computer users worldwide have downloaded BOINC to help scientists with the alien search or to break down data for other important projects, including cancer research, that require millions of computers to sift through vast amounts of information.

UC-Berkeley scientists have said BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) is harmless. It downloads and scans data collected by a national radio telescope. The software clicks on whenever the computer is idle and in screensaver mode, so it won't interfere with other programs when they are in use.

However, Higley officials said the software interrupted classroom lessons.

They claimed teachers who were using large electronic classroom boards, SMART boards, connected to their computers would have to stop their lessons because BOINC would click on while they were working with students.

Since Niesluchowski was arrested last fall, UC-Berkeley SETI statistics show the credits for data downloads that he had accumulated, allegedly via the username "Nez," dropped off to nothing.