Florida Teen Charged With Felony Hacking For Changing Desktop Wallpaper 629
colinneagle writes: A 14-year-old middle school student in Holiday, Florida, was arrested this week and charged with "an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access," which is a felony. The student reportedly used an administrator password to log into a teacher's computer and change the background image to a photo of two men kissing.
The student also revealed his secrets after he was caught – the password was the teacher's last name, and the teacher had typed it in in full view of the students. The student said many other students used these administrators' passwords (their teachers' last names) so they can screen-share and video chat with other students. The student was briefly held in a nearby detention center, and the county Sheriff warned that other teenagers caught doing the same thing will "face the same consequences."
The student also revealed his secrets after he was caught – the password was the teacher's last name, and the teacher had typed it in in full view of the students. The student said many other students used these administrators' passwords (their teachers' last names) so they can screen-share and video chat with other students. The student was briefly held in a nearby detention center, and the county Sheriff warned that other teenagers caught doing the same thing will "face the same consequences."
Must example set of him (Score:5, Funny)
Twart future terrorists in their tracks must.
Re: Must example set of him (Score:3, Insightful)
Justice system is retarded.
Re: Must example set of him (Score:5, Funny)
Retarded, justice system is. For you that fixed.
Makes perfect sense. (Score:5, Insightful)
Kids need to learn the consequences of embarrassing powerful people. That is one of the golden rules of modern society; thou shalt not embarrass thy superiors. Snowden forgot that, and this little punk forgot that.
You respect your betters, or you get tossed in a cage. That's the law. Ingrain that into your kid's brains before puberty hits, or they will wind up in a cage too.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's what you are upset about? If voting had any actual power behind it, the politicians would have made it illegal long ago.
Incidentally, if you think you are better than women or blacks, then you don't know your place. There are only three tiers in humanity: the super-rich, the rich, and the poor. That's it. Based on the fact that you posted on slashdot, I am willing to wager that you are among "the poor." As much as it might hurt your fragile pride to realize this, you are just as insignificant as
Re: Must example set of him (Score:5, Insightful)
Justice system is retarded.
This kid's parents aren't too bright either. Parents have a responsibility to ensure that their kids understand their legal and constitutional rights. I have a teenage daughter, and I have taught her that if she is questioned by the police, she should say exactly four words:
1. I
2. want
3. my
4. parents.
Then she should say NOTHING else, until I am there. The police have no right to interrogate a kid without a parent or guardian present. I also made sure my kids watched this video: Never talk to the police [youtube.com]. The kid is TFA is in trouble because he mouthed off, and made the authorities look stupid.
Re: Must example set of him (Score:3, Insightful)
Adults should keep the exact same strategy in mind, with one minor substitution. Replace parents with lawyer.
Re: Must example set of him (Score:4, Informative)
The law is screwed up. This isn't hacking. Hacking is when someone intrudes into a properly secured computer system containing high-valued data and conducts ransom, espionage, theft, damage in a large amount, such as stealing SSNs, identity theft, or intellectual property on which a business is based.
This is the equivalent of the teacher leaving the grade book unattended on his table instead of locking it in the desk and exits the room for a moment, and a student sneaks over to it and pencils in a lewd picture on the cover.
The kid is deserving of detention, and possibly suspension for petty vandalism, especially if there's an ongoing discipline issue.
No friggin' jail time or criminal charges for ordinary childish behavior.
If there's a crime; it should be misdemeanor for disorderly conduct in posting sexually explicit photos.
Re:Must example set of him (Score:5, Insightful)
Especially because he put GAY GUYS on the computer, the horrors. If he had changed the wallpaper to a cat picture this would not have happened I guarantee it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
If you mean the teacher, then I whole heartedly agree. We must make an example of the moronic teacher that used their password (and a galacticly stupid one at that) in front of the class.
The only person at fault is the teacher.
Kids will be kids - it was better to change a wallpaper to "show the teacher the error of their ways" than to bully some poor dumb jock.
Re:Must example set of him (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Must example set of him (Score:5, Insightful)
Because a 14 year old that did the equivalent or pray-painting graffiti is a much safer "collar" that stopping real criminals out on the street....
THe story is another example of why America is a laughing-stock...
Re: Must example set of him (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Must example set of him (Score:4, Insightful)
So how does changing a wall paper (which could easlily be switched back) equate to FELONY which is supposed to mean "serious crime", right up there with murder, rape, bank robery, kid napping, and a number of others.
It doesn't, but that was not the crime. That was one of the byproducts of the crime. The crime was hacking into the computer. Even if you know the password, if you the authorized user for the account used, then that is hacking. If you don't like the law, there are two things you can do. Either 1. Don't break the law. or 2. Appeal to your congresscritter to get the law changed.
That being said, changing desktop wallpaper or other configuration on someone else's computer is extremely rude and not befitting of a member of society.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
How old are you? There's this thing called "perspective" that gets applied to crimes... usually. See, if we put everything through your black/white strainer, then the toddler who takes an extra candy at the teller window is effectively committing bank robbery. Do you understand how absurd that is, or would you like to stick to your guns and start putting toddlers in prison?
Re: Must example set of him (Score:5, Interesting)
The amount of times I played similar pranks on lesser knowledgeable students while in college should have put me behind bars for 3 life sentences.
Yet, I have grown to be a responsible family man.
Maybe if i would have been put in jail for such things i would have been a hardened criminal by now.
thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:5, Insightful)
the things I might have done....
picking the mimeograph of the test out of the trash if its in public isn't even a criminal offense...
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, but this isn't in public. The fact that they had easily learned the password and were regularly using it isn't the same as it being "in public".
I don't think this should be a felony, but just because I leave my front door unlocked and slightly ajar doesn't give you permission to enter it.
On the other hand, I don't know why schools are so quick to call the cops for something like this. Kids must do something at this level of annoying multiple times a day, every day. If they called the cops for every one of those, we'd have to move the classes to prison.
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, but if you leave your door unlocked and slightly ajar does give me the right to put a pic of two dudes kissing in your foyer
Re: (Score:2)
So trespassing since you were uninvited?
And yes, people who put flyers on door knobs are trespassing.
Re: (Score:3)
Depends on where you live. Putting flyers on the door knob is only trespassing if you have already told them not to be there, put up a no trespassing sign, or put up a no soliciting sign in most places. Otherwise, people can reasonably expect to be able to walk up to your front door.
Pushing a photo through an open door isn't really trespassing either if you stay outside.
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:5, Funny)
My mailman leaves stuff in my mudroom to keep it out of the rain & dirt (sometimes bears).
Yikes, your mailman sometimes leaves bears in your mudroom? You must have really pissed him off!
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:5, Informative)
You don't define who's trespassing on your property when they have a customary reason to be there. You can't take the mailman to court for trespassing, you can't take the police to court for chasing a suspect through your house and out a window, and you can't take a registered solicitor to court for trespassing (provided they leave as soon as you ask). If the fire department shows up with a reported emergency, they can bust in and there's not shit you can do about it. Building inspector? Same deal. Health inspector? Yep.
A registered solicitor leaving a flyer is NOT considered littering. You cannot win that in court. Ever try to get rid of Jehovah's Witnesses? They always leave shit. Good luck.
You don't define it. Trespassing is defined by the law, which allows you to take certain actions to encourage a certain set of people to leave, but it does not automatically mean that anyone who sets foot on your property is trespassing just because you don't like it.
TL;DR: The world is more nuanced than your "LALALALA FINGERS IN EARS" view of things.
Re: (Score:3)
About once every couple of weeks or so. You should've been there the night the bear ate goombaw.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Actually no it does not. That is called trespassing.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, but if you leave your door unlocked and slightly ajar does give me the right to put a pic of two dudes kissing in your foyer
Might give him the right to kiss you in his foyer.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes, but this isn't in public. The fact that they had easily learned the password and were regularly using it isn't the same as it being "in public".
No, but where is the "crime"? where I live, a student messing with a background image might get some harsh words. Set it to something pornographic, and they might even get a lowered grade. Hacking in order to cheat on exams might get them expelled - but still no police involvment.
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:5, Insightful)
'hacking' needs to have some lower bounds, and this sounds more like a case of simple vandalism then any kind of intrusion.
Re: (Score:2)
Not even that. More like one of those people hangs an ugly picture on the wall, which can easily be taken down. Worth a chewing out by the teacher, but not much else.
Try this one little life hack... (Score:4)
I'm sure there is a "life hack" for that...
One of my pet peeves is the overuse of the word "hacking" or "hack" in contexts that doesn't make sense or are just incorrect.
In this case, there was no hacking involved. He knew the password and used it. Unauthorized access isn't hacking. Then again people with a bias or agenda will use terms for impact, just like "theft" and "stealing" when used in context of copyright infringement.
To me, when people do that with words, they are just explaining to people either A) how biased they are, or B) how little they understand the subject at hand. Either way, not worth reading or listening to.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:5, Interesting)
This case, the woman who got 20 years for (possibly inducing) miscarriage, the guy who built a fort from cardboard boxes in his yard for his kids and was told by the city to remove it, all in the last few days -- I think they call for this quote from Jack Tramiel (of Commodore) when he asked how he could not hate Germans after having been in Auschwitz:
"You know," he once told me, "it's hard to believe it really happened. But it can happen again. In America. Americans like to make rules, and that scares me. If you have too many rules you get locked in a system. It's the system that says this one dies and that one doesn't, not the people. That's why I don't hate the German people. Individuals, yes. Rules, yes. But not all Germans." He shrugged. "They just obeyed the rules. But that's why we need more Commodores. We need more mavericks, just so the rules don't take over."
Strike Two. (Score:3)
It shouldn't even be a criminal charge. It may be a crime by the letter of the law, but c'mon, this couldn't be handled in-house?!
Green had previously received a three-day suspension for accessing the system inappropriately.
Green was released on Wednesday from Land O'Lakes Detention Center into the custody of his mother. He'll likely be granted pretrial intervention by a judge, sheriff's detective Anthony Bossone said.
Green also received a 10-day school suspension. It's unclear if he'll return to Paul R. Smith to complete the school year after the suspension.
Middle school student charged with cybercrime in Holiday [tampabay.com]
Individuals who successfully complete a Pretrial Intervention Program will have their criminal charges dismissed.
Pretrial Interve
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The school over reacted and it became a mess. Time to put the Principal on the unemployment line. The voters there need to take back their schools from the idiots they've left in charge.
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:4, Insightful)
SO?! That's still NOT OKAY!
What you've just described is a police state using tactics of fear and intimidation to subjugate the public. That's what you're defending here!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:5, Funny)
You do't understand. The pick this kid posted suggested to them that he might grow up a Democrat. Soon he will be a felon and unable to vote. This is just one more aspect of many police state laws being put in place by the modern GOP and the shadow plutocrats that control it to make sure their grip on the public is complete.
One doen't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for at all the right wing conspirator wackjobs, who are so busy protesting against the evils of "liberalism" and "socialism", that they haven't even noticed the plutocrats have inserted a rubber glove so far up their backsides that when the time comes all the plutocrats will have to do is to reach in and yank their hearts out.
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe they could just have the punishment fit the crime? When I was in school this would have meant bending over the Principal's desk and getting 5 swats with a piece of wood called a paddle. Now we're so much more civilized. Instead of bruising his ass cheeks we'll just ruin his entire fucking life. So much better.
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually had this happen to me in 7th grade. Another student realized that we could use a password cracking program (I think windows would save pw files) to crack local user account passwords. First of all this is back in the days when windows 95 had horrific security such as storing user account passwords in a file that any user could access. :P And what would happen is that when you logged into Novell windows would often then prompt you for a local user account as well. And almost everybody would type in their their regular username and password to each machine. Well the other student cracked the schools system administrator's password and it was surprise surprise his first name plus like 123.
So for the first time in known history at our school, we finally had several administrators who actually could manage the computers. We changed the desktop resolution from like 640x480 up to a "modern" 1024x768 on all of the machines. We were able to fix teacher machines which weren't working. The "system administrator" at our school's solution to everything was just format and re-install. Which is probably cost-effective for him but not ideal for teachers who would have to reinstall all of their software.
We also had a little bit of fun, using remote desktop software on friends to trick them into thinking that Microsoft Word had a sentient chat bot that they had unlocked. Or moving a file around on their desktop when they were about to click on it so they would have to chase it around.
Well the fun all came crashing down when the system administrator went on vacation and came back to notice that he had apparently "worked" throughout his vacation logging into various systems. My friend who initially cracked his password had been dumb enough to log in as himself, and then 2 seconds later as the admin, then back in as himself again. The admin perfectly sensibly went to the principle, who unfortunately though was 80 years old and completely clueless on technology. The admin filled the principle's heads with "felony hacking" and warned him that we could change our grades (We all had 4.0+ GPAs anyway so...) and also that we could change all of the accountant's books. Which might have been true but... which to me raised questions as to why the IT manager gave himself access to the entire school's accounting records. So the principle called us each in one by one. Told us (without a representative or parent) that we could either as 12 year olds consent to something like 80 hours of community service at the school over the next year or else they would press felony charges against us. We of course all started balling one by one and folded.
After that the teachers would ask us to fix their computers because they but we just had to shrug our shoulders and say "sorry, the school says if we fix your computer we'll face felony charges." Needless to say the computers returned to their shitty unmaintained state. The principle apologized to us a couple years later and said he over-reacted.
Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Doesn't every computer geek who grew up in the 90s have a story like that? As far as I'm concerned, benignly hacking your teacher is a completely normal and expect part of growing up!
If all schools start reacting to that kind of thing like the one in TFA did, they really will need H1Bs because all the Americans who otherwise would have become developers will be in prison!
Insanity (Score:5, Funny)
Can we just give Florida back to Spain or something?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Insanity (Score:5, Funny)
And what state do you live in?
Denial.
Re:Insanity (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Insanity (Score:5, Insightful)
I live in Florida and this embarrasses me.
However, I think giving Florida back to Spain might fix the problem. I don't think this is a Florida problem as much as a U.S. problem. In this country, we criminalize everything and take common sense out of the picture.
Re:Insanity (Score:5, Insightful)
OT .signature Re:Insanity (Score:4, Funny)
Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
First they pressed you. Then they re-pressed you. Now you are flat.
Abusive authority breeds abusers, not obedience (Score:5, Insightful)
The question every person in authority should be in the habit of asking is: "Am I using the least amount of my authority possible to accomplish my immediate goals?"
To get a peace officer badge, A Clockwork Orange should be mandatory viewing with a discussion to follow, and an arrest for not understanding it. I think peace officers who don't understand the point of that movie are at least as likely to commit serious crimes as 8th graders who tamper with screen savers. I'm willing to be proven wrong.
Re: (Score:3)
Suppose your neighbour's kid notices you often leave the back door unlocked when you leave for a short errant, so next time you step out he:
1) Sneaks in and leaves a turd on the dinner table
2) Sneaks in and steals your wife's fresh baked a
Re: (Score:3)
Actually, followup studies suggest that the scared straight approach leads to more offenses in the future.
A juvenile prank (and that's all this was) calls for the more conventional consequences such as detention, writing an essay, note to parents and such. Perhaps a suggestion in the parent's note that they should change the kid's wallpaper to "Barney and Friends" for a week.
Re: (Score:3)
I think you have the ordering wrong. If someone defecated on my dinner table I would never eat off that table again. He might as well have set fire to it. And since the table is worth more than the iPad, I think the first scenario is actually the worst.
It seems like a small thing, but it does highlight how something like theft is easy to judge the seriousness of; namely, stealing a $2 candy bar isn't as bad as stealing a $20 shirt, which isn't as bad as stealing a $20,000 car. But sometimes it can be diff
Re: (Score:3)
If someone defecated on my dinner table I would never eat off that table again.
Really why? I mean you know we have things like disinfectants and such that would make it entirely safe right? A little soap water, and some elbow grease to clean it, then follow it with a little Lysol (which probably from a health stand point isn't even needed) and it should be cleaner and more germ free than before there was a turd on it.
Have you ever been around small children or had sick pet? If your standard is must dispose of anything that has even been in contact with fecal matter must be dispose
Detention? (Score:5, Insightful)
Was a simple, after-school detention not an option for some reason? I mean, really? You called the police? Did da big bad hacker scare you wif his eweet skills? Jumping Jesus on a pogostick! They're kids, mischievous by nature. Give the kid a detention, and institute a sane fucking password policy!
If I were a parent of a child in this school, I'd be outraged. I'm outraged right now, and I don't live anywhere near Florida!
Re: (Score:3)
Been there. Done that. Three strikes and you're out. (RTFA)
Still, a felony seems awfully harsh.
Re:Abusive authority breeds abusers, not obedience (Score:5, Interesting)
There are people who have seen this pattern and are doing something about it:
http://www.seattletimes.com/se... [seattletimes.com]
I'm hoping the numbers prove that it can be expanded to the many other places where simply jailing the offender doesn't make the world a better place.
I probably would've gotten the death penalty... (Score:5, Funny)
Hah. On the Windows 3.1 systems at my high school I would change the screensaver message to something like "FUCK THA POLICE" or whatever and then use the ATTRIB command to mark WIN.INI as read-only, meaning it was impossible to change the message back using the UI.
Re:I probably would've gotten the death penalty... (Score:5, Informative)
The Windows logo in the Flying Windows screensaver was from the Wingdings font. Using Wordpad you could edit the screensaver binary and change the character that gets displayed to another one from that font. So at various times in the Win3.1 era people around me were found to have flying smiley faces, flying skull and crossbones etc.
Re: (Score:2)
How about the 'Hot Dog Stand' theme? That was handy too!
Re: (Score:3)
How about the 'Hot Dog Stand' theme? That was handy too!
I was mischievous, not evil!
Re:I probably would've gotten the death penalty... (Score:5, Funny)
8th grader me thought it was the height of comedy to write files with names like "[Teacher name] is dumb" to the desktop.
Any attempt to remove or rename the file using the command line or UI would cause Windows to crap all over itself and crash.
Re: (Score:3)
I used to swap the boot and shutdown pictures on my co-worker's computers back when we had win95.
It was funny to see them panic when the computer was booting up and the message said "shutting down"...
Rare arguement for jury nullification (Score:5, Insightful)
It's rare that a jury should exercise "jury nullification" but cases like these, where the punishment does not fit the crime, are one of them.
Acquitting a guilty person when the charge is over-the-top for the circumstances sends a loud message to prosecutors to dial-it-back to something sane the next time around.
If there wasn't a history of other students doing the same thing, filing misdemeanor criminal charges in juvenile court with a pre-arranged deal where they charges would be dismissed and the arrest expunged within 1-2 years would not be inappropriate.
Because there is such a history, even this is too much. This should have been handled as an internal disciplinary and/or re-training matter for the student and, in parallel, for the faculty so this kind of thing doesn't happen again.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I think to it shows a complete disconnect from what computers are and the seriousness of what the student did.
If a teacher were to leave a spare set of keys to the Teacher Lounge under a mat and students saw this. Then some of students sneaked in and stole some coffee, etc. And one student sneaked in and changed one of the boring motivational posters to one of two men kissing. That would be the physical world equivalent of this crime!! No one in their right mind would charge the student with federal burgla
Re: (Score:3)
When did our schools become police states. I don't ever remember even seeing a police officer at my high school /*mumble*/ years ago (Now get off my grass). Now the schools have police officers on the property as an assignment, and trivial things like this become fully punishable by the state. What is wrong with two weeks suspension (Which I still think is heavy for a simple student prank) without needing to get the police involved and the threat of being arrested and tried as an adult (at 14
Re: (Score:3)
It's rare that a jury should exercise "jury nullification" but cases like these, where the punishment does not fit the crime, are one of them.
What is even rarer these days is the jury trial. With evolution of threat of insane sentences looming and nonsensical cost of litigation even the completely innocent dare not risk ignoring plea deals and settlement.
Acquitting a guilty person when the charge is over-the-top for the circumstances sends a loud message to prosecutors to dial-it-back to something sane the next time around.
Blemishing the record of a prosecutor constitutes a high crime against god that will not be tolerated under any circumstance.
Well, yeah... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well, yeah... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, it could have been 400 frogs in elaborate animatronic costumes ... but why the hell would we assume that?
Felony hacking (Score:5, Insightful)
More serious than misdemeanor manslaughter.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Felony hacking (Score:5, Insightful)
True Justice. (Score:5, Insightful)
Finally, we are teaching our children that justice is truly blind. It cannot see that we are charging the child, a 14 year-old, with a felony that will last the rest of his life. Never mind any jobs that the kid may try to get in the future. He is now a felon and shall be treated as such.
Seriously though. He is just a child. I believe in making sure it is shown that what he did was wrong, but treating him as a full blown felon? Disgraceful.
Ignorant people frighten easily (Score:4, Interesting)
One time, I used a command prompt instruction to circumvent the 'security' our high school computer lab teacher had used to prevent students from accessing the Control Panel in Windows 3.1. The mouse tracking speed had been set too high, and the computer was difficult to use, so I fixed it. The teacher accused me of "hacking" and I was kicked out of the computer lab for the rest of the school year. That teacher probably still runs a computer lab; I grew up and went to work for Microsoft. I hope this kid is as lucky.
Re:Ignorant people frighten easily (Score:5, Funny)
How can you be so callous -- this kid is just a kid!!!
AUP (Score:4, Insightful)
Most acceptable use policies would require the teacher to understand that actions taken with his credentials are his responsibility. As the teachers own password was used, he or she should bear the responsibilities of the action.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You don't understand. The photo that was placed on the screen clearly indicates this kid could grow up to be a Democrat. It is essential the felony charges stick so that this kids voting rights will be permanently eliminated.
Protect the children (Score:4, Insightful)
But really, there are some pretty loud crickets when the state gets a hardon for arresting/harrassing children.
Tech illiteracy at its finest (Score:5, Insightful)
If you obviously don't understand what the kid did, they how do you expect people to believe that your judgment is fair?
Its clear in this situation the kid is the only one who knows that a computer isn't a magic box with pretty lights.
Seems like a good lesson. (Score:3)
Wow ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sometimes you have to look at how these laws are being applied, and fight back the overwhelming urge to slap the stupid from the people who pursue these charges. And it might take a lot of slapping.
This is a high school prank, nothing more.
Honestly, the people who are filing felony charges of complete morons.
Re:Wow ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, let's not make the lazy, incompetent people who run these computers and assigned terrible passwords out to be at fault here.
That's just blaming the victim and using common sense.
Honestly, anything he did after they already knew he had the password makes them complete idiots.
Glad to hear (Score:2)
Glad to hear that the kid wasn't shot in the back 8 times while trying to get away.
go back... (Score:2)
a few decades and the kid would have been asked to do junior admin stuff after school.
Ridiculous article title (Score:5, Informative)
The student observed the teacher's keyboard while the password was typed in. The student then used that observed password to unlawfully gain access to the system in question.
This has nothing to do with the wallpaper. The student leveraged unauthorized access to a system to do something.
Re: (Score:2)
This has nothing to do with the wallpaper. The student leveraged unauthorized access to a system to do something.
Yes, the student leveraged unauthorized access to change the wallpaper.
Re: (Score:2)
You idiot. How dare you point out that they title is pure flamebait!
What will you do next? Logical discourse?
What is the world coming too.
Re:Ridiculous article title (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm with you.
He had already been busted and slapped on the wrist:
Green had previously received a three-day suspension for accessing the system inappropriately. Other students also got in trouble at the time, he said. It was a well-known trick, Green said, because the password was easy to remember: a teacher's last name. He said he discovered it by watching the teacher type it in.
The only problem here is that he's being charged with a felony, because hacking laws on the books don't make a distinction between "petty" hacking and "grand" hacking. There's no shoplifting equivalent on the hacking books; it's all grand theft auto.
The teacher needs reprimanded by his IT department and his leadership (principal, union, whatever).
The kid needs his wrist slapped, and and county attorney needs to decide not to file charges, charge him with some sort of misdemeanor mischief charge instead.
== All stealing is equally bad (Score:3)
So should someone who steals $2 million and a kid who steals a pencil sharpener both be given the same jail sentence?
This is the same. Never mind that what he did with his ILLEGAL access was completely harmless (the pencil sharpener would actually slightly damage the shop keepers income if only slightly).
... absolutist
CS will fill jail cells. (Score:2)
So, with the continued attitude that anyone who changes a parameter from the default setting is suddenly a "terrorist", I can only assume that the push for more CS in schools today is nothing more than a lobbyist-driven push to fill privatized prisons.
It might as well be, with felony threats against a 14-year old. Don't be surprised when you can't get any gender to fill a CS classroom with idiotic law enforcement reactions like this.
Re: (Score:3)
Prison workers are cheaper than H1B workers. Maybe there's a nefarious patriotic plot behind all this.
Jesus. (Score:5, Informative)
I think I'd have been put away for life, if I was younger and in the US, or possibly tasered, charged with assulting a cop's fist with my face then shot.
When I were a lad and the school computers ran Windows 95 (all spiffy and shiny and new they were), I created a trojan floppy which renamed and overwrote some key executables which autoexec.bat with my own ones. My ones passed on the arguments to the true ones so the boot process worked as usual and it was very hard to see that it was trojaned.
Of course they were set to "go off" on a certain date as a prank on a teacher who was being a dick and who many people had complained about and nothing changed.
All you had to do was slip in the floppy, reboot and it would install the trojan. Of course once word got around everyone wanted in on the act so I had to do very little of the legwork to trojan the entire computer lab.
I got a "yeah very funny (snigger) don't do that again mmmmkay?" talk.
And that was it.
Come to think of it I was always pissing around and hacking.
What is school if not a safe environment for kids to learn stuff and learn where the boundaries are?
Everyone involved in this charge should be hounded out of office and publicly shamed for being reprehensible humans.
They have to do something to keep the prisons full (Score:4, Insightful)
Since states are now legalizing POT, the numbers are starting to Drop. So they've made the bar way lower on computer mucking!
We gotta do something to keep the damn prisons filled!
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
On the bright side (Score:5, Informative)
At least he didn't just take 8 bullets to the back.
Unauthorized access is illegal. Period. (Score:3)
The teacher who used their own last name as an admin password is an idiot and should be reprimanded.
But an unlocked door is not an invitation to come in and snoop around someone's house, even if all you do is swap some picture frames around. That's what the kid did. It was unauthorized tresspassing. He should be suspended. If he'd done something worse, he should be expelled and/or prosecuted. Also, we don't know what else he did, and even if it was nothing, not coming down hard on this will make other students think this kind of violation is not a big deal. Unauthorized access IS a big deal, because commonly enough it's done for nefarious purposes, like changing grades or getting a peek at exam questions. Also, tresspassing in general is wrong.
As for the two men kissing, who cares. In 100 years, that'll be as not a big deal as interracial kissing is right now. If the photo is overly sexual in some way, then perhaps there may be an added problem of inappropriateness. In our current culture and all things being equal, a photo of a man and a woman kissing is more likely to be considered "romantic", while two people of the same sex kissing is going to be interpreted more sexually. That's not exactly fair, though, and if the school were to openly interpret it that way, they'd get into a world of shit politically.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, and trespassing (in the real world) is a misdemeanor, generally speaking. Not a felony, a misdemeanor. Why should the equivalent on a computer be any different?
That said, I doubt most prosecutors would bother if someone reported that someone else had trespassed to leave a photo. They'd probably tell you to lock your door.
What SHOULD have happened... (Score:3)
What SHOULD have happened in this case is that the kid should have been given a few days of detention. All of the teachers should have been made to change their passwords, not type them in when students can see and not let students use them. And the student body should have been given a warning that anyone caught messing with the computers or using the teachers passwords will get a few days detention.
If the same student re-offends (and continues to mess with the computers) they can then be given a suspension.
Re: (Score:2)
How refreshing would it be if Sheriff Nocco appropriately laughed at the teacher, said they had both done worse as kids, and lightly chastized the guy for wasting his time because he had real crimes to work on.
That's probably how 99.99% of sheriff/LEO reacts, and then, there is this 0.01% who seem to think they are white knights in shinny armor fighting a crusade which makes the other 99.99% looks like waffen-SS... I wonder if MSM have an agenda...
Re: (Score:3)
You kid, I'm sure, but Land O'Lakes is part of the Tampa Florida MSA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3)
There are PLACES in the US named "Land 'O Lakes", like the COMMUNITY where the facility is located:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... [wikipedia.org]
that have nothing to do with "Land 'O Lakes" the dairy company/cooperative based in Minnesota
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... [wikipedia.org]
Re:The good old days (Score:5, Funny)
I did this to a friend, on his Christmas computer. Him, his father and his Marine buddies all seriously contemplated killing me. They were utterly furious and I didn't return for a long time. Of course, the gentleman featured on the desktop were unclothed in addition, but aren't we all, in a sense? Good fun, indeed.
Reminds me of a friend who was tired of his neighbor using his wifi so rather than putting a password on it, like a normal person, he instead used mac filtering to redirect all requests originating from unrecognized mac's to lemon party.