Today's Childish Prank May Be Tomorrows Multi-Billion Dollar Virus
In a continuing sage, a group of 13 high school
students in Pennsylvania have now been charged with felonies for bypassing
school computer security.
According to a number of articles, including one on CNN.COM entitled Harmless Hackers or Teen Criminals? , the 13 students committed a number of violations. Not only did they violate school policy by bypassing computer security on school issued laptops, they also downloaded forbidden items, and utilized the monitoring software to spy on district administrators.
According to CNN, the students and their families are outraged, but school officials rebut that they students were only turned over to police after other school levied punishments failed to dissuade the students from their activities.
In my humble opinion, these students need to be slapped down now but hard! Apparently they were provided the laptops and given a set of rules for their use. Sure, they are high school students and kids will be kids. But after the first violation and appropriately levied punishment these kids didn't stop. While adults, and the kids themselves, will look at this ongoing practice by the children as nothing but a childish stunt - the rest of us have to look at it for what it really is. A group of sociopaths misanthropes who simply feel that they are above the law, that they should be able to do what they want simply because they have the skills and the knowledge.
What will the parents say when they find out that little Johnny releases the next big virus costing billions of dollars? Or when little Jenny hacks into a company and steals thousands of credit card numbers?
A website has been set up, complete with links to news articles, reader comments and even a web store to raise funds. I perused the site for a few minutes and could not find very many opinions which dissents from that of the author of the site. That is that the authorities have over-reacted. Funny - the website is run by an uncle of one of the kids. The biggest complain is that the parents feel that Computer Trespass (a felony) is too strict a charge for the students. After all, they are kids and didn't mean any harm. And it's sad to say that I really don't find this all too surprising. It seems that in today's America we tend to live in a blameless society. It wasn't my fault - I'm curious and the IT staff didn't secure the password. Now, I'm curious and they didn't secure the password enough. Now, after being punished, on multiple occasions, I figured they still hadn't secured it so I tried again. Common folks! Once again the cry goes up - they didn't mean any harm. It doesn't deserve a felony charge.
Well, neither do kids to take a car for a joy ride, break out windows, smash mail boxes. Computer Trespass is a felony offense. And it has been since long before 9/11 so don't go screaming that crap.
One of the 13, James Shrawder (15) likens their activities to an adult who travels at 10 miles over the speed limit or doesn't stop at a stop sign. The difference, James, is that adults know and understand the law. You are correct in that they expect a fine - because that is what the penalty is. If you are going to break the rules, then you should know what the risks are and be prepared to pay them. Computer Trespass is a Felony, and not just in your home state of Pennsylvania.
Perhaps it might be a little more clear to those parents if someone, and I am not suggesting someone really do this, but if someone were to hack the website and replace all of it's content with oh, say, porn. Or, even better, the names, addresses and phone numbers of the families involved. After all - thats public information probably available from a local phone book or online white pages. It's nothing evil - just a childish prank. Right? Who knows - it might even help your case a bit if people knew exactly how and where to get ahold of you. Perhaps you could get that money and pro-bono lawyer your asking for.
As for your further education, the crime you committed (and defense from prosecution) is as follows:
Computer Trespass:
According to a number of articles, including one on CNN.COM entitled Harmless Hackers or Teen Criminals? , the 13 students committed a number of violations. Not only did they violate school policy by bypassing computer security on school issued laptops, they also downloaded forbidden items, and utilized the monitoring software to spy on district administrators.
According to CNN, the students and their families are outraged, but school officials rebut that they students were only turned over to police after other school levied punishments failed to dissuade the students from their activities.
In my humble opinion, these students need to be slapped down now but hard! Apparently they were provided the laptops and given a set of rules for their use. Sure, they are high school students and kids will be kids. But after the first violation and appropriately levied punishment these kids didn't stop. While adults, and the kids themselves, will look at this ongoing practice by the children as nothing but a childish stunt - the rest of us have to look at it for what it really is. A group of sociopaths misanthropes who simply feel that they are above the law, that they should be able to do what they want simply because they have the skills and the knowledge.
What will the parents say when they find out that little Johnny releases the next big virus costing billions of dollars? Or when little Jenny hacks into a company and steals thousands of credit card numbers?
A website has been set up, complete with links to news articles, reader comments and even a web store to raise funds. I perused the site for a few minutes and could not find very many opinions which dissents from that of the author of the site. That is that the authorities have over-reacted. Funny - the website is run by an uncle of one of the kids. The biggest complain is that the parents feel that Computer Trespass (a felony) is too strict a charge for the students. After all, they are kids and didn't mean any harm. And it's sad to say that I really don't find this all too surprising. It seems that in today's America we tend to live in a blameless society. It wasn't my fault - I'm curious and the IT staff didn't secure the password. Now, I'm curious and they didn't secure the password enough. Now, after being punished, on multiple occasions, I figured they still hadn't secured it so I tried again. Common folks! Once again the cry goes up - they didn't mean any harm. It doesn't deserve a felony charge.
Well, neither do kids to take a car for a joy ride, break out windows, smash mail boxes. Computer Trespass is a felony offense. And it has been since long before 9/11 so don't go screaming that crap.
One of the 13, James Shrawder (15) likens their activities to an adult who travels at 10 miles over the speed limit or doesn't stop at a stop sign. The difference, James, is that adults know and understand the law. You are correct in that they expect a fine - because that is what the penalty is. If you are going to break the rules, then you should know what the risks are and be prepared to pay them. Computer Trespass is a Felony, and not just in your home state of Pennsylvania.
Perhaps it might be a little more clear to those parents if someone, and I am not suggesting someone really do this, but if someone were to hack the website and replace all of it's content with oh, say, porn. Or, even better, the names, addresses and phone numbers of the families involved. After all - thats public information probably available from a local phone book or online white pages. It's nothing evil - just a childish prank. Right? Who knows - it might even help your case a bit if people knew exactly how and where to get ahold of you. Perhaps you could get that money and pro-bono lawyer your asking for.
As for your further education, the crime you committed (and defense from prosecution) is as follows:
Computer Trespass:
(A) No person shall purposely,
knowingly or recklessly gain access to or cause access to be gained to any
computer, computer system, computer network, computer program, computer data
base, or computer material without the express or implied authorization of the
owner or an agent of the owner empowered to authorize access to the computer,
computer system, computer network, computer program, computer data base, or
computer material. Any person who violates this section is guilty of the crime
of computer trespass.
It shall be an affirmative defense to a
prosecution for any crime under this section of the Code that:
.....
(3) the person could not have
reasonably known that his access was unauthorized.
Posted: Thu - August 11, 2005 at 09:19 PM If this blog entry was of use to you, why not show your appreciation by donating to support the site? Just click on the MAKE A DONATION button on the right hand side of the page! It's all handled by PAYPAL.
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Published On: Aug 30, 2006 06:55 AM
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Published On: Aug 30, 2006 06:55 AM