Two Triton High School students were honored April 9 after discovering and responsibly reporting security vulnerabilities in Aspen, the district’s student information system.

Lucas Benesh and River Winn received the district’s Student of the Month award for their work. Megan Ober, the staff member who nominated them, recounted how the students first sought to check class-rank information and, in the process, discovered broader access they should not have had. Ober described a subsequent Zoom session in which Aspen engineers spoke with the students and the district to reproduce and resolve the vulnerability.

Ober told the committee the students “went through the appropriate channels to fix it” and displayed discretion in reporting the problem instead of exploiting it. She said Aspen later fixed the vulnerabilities, added the students to a “security champions” listing on the vendor’s site and provided a modest gift (an Amazon gift card) to the students.

Chair Linda Lukovsky publicly thanked the students and assured the family and community there would be no discipline or legal action related to the discovery. “We’re really proud of both of you and so grateful for your character and contributions to our community,” Lukovsky said during the presentation.

Ending: The district said Aspen has acknowledged and resolved the reported issues; staff praised the students’ curiosity and ethical choices and recognized them as Student(s) of the Month.