'Never Commit a Crime When Your Phone Is Connected to a Wi-Fi Network' (slate.com) 132
"Like many bad ideas, this one started with Bud Light," reports Slate.
As four high school seniors sat around shooting the breeze before graduation, they decided to vandalize their school as a senior prank. Disguised with T-shirts over their faces to evade security cameras, the young men originally set out to spray-paint "Class of 2018," but in a moment one of the men describes to the Washington Post as "a blur," their graffiti fest took a turn toward swastikas, racial slurs attacking the school's principal, and other hateful symbols.
Despite their covered faces, school officials had no problem finding who was responsible: The students' phones had automatically connected with the school's Wi-Fi using their unique logins. Their digital fingerprints tipped off administrators to who was on campus just before midnight, and, as the Post describes, they were held accountable for their crime. But the incident also showcases how little we know about what we're giving away with our digital footprints. These men had clearly given thought about how to stay anonymous -- they knew they needed masks to foil the cameras -- but they didn't think the devices in their pockets could give them away.
The AP adds that the prison sentences for the four teenagers "ranged from eight to 18 weekends behind bars."
Despite their covered faces, school officials had no problem finding who was responsible: The students' phones had automatically connected with the school's Wi-Fi using their unique logins. Their digital fingerprints tipped off administrators to who was on campus just before midnight, and, as the Post describes, they were held accountable for their crime. But the incident also showcases how little we know about what we're giving away with our digital footprints. These men had clearly given thought about how to stay anonymous -- they knew they needed masks to foil the cameras -- but they didn't think the devices in their pockets could give them away.
The AP adds that the prison sentences for the four teenagers "ranged from eight to 18 weekends behind bars."
Even easier (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Even easier (Score:5, Insightful)
How about just leave it at never commit a crime. You don't even need a phone or to be near a WiFi network to follow that.
True, but you can’t fix stupid. Don’t even try...
Re: (Score:2)
How about just leave it at never commit a crime. You don't even need a phone or to be near a WiFi network to follow that.
True, but you can’t fix stupid. Don’t even try...
Maturity is how one fixes stupid. For most of us, maturity comes with time.
Re: (Score:3)
Maturity is how one fixes stupid. For most of us, maturity comes with time.
No. Maturity comes with experience, time alone doesn't fix stupid. The life you life and the things you learn during that time does.
Now these kids should be taught a life lesson, spending a week removing the graffiti as well as another week cleaning up trash, planting trees, etc should do it.
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Experience and education can fix ignorance.
Nothing can fix stupid.
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Because the rich and powerful get to define what a crime is. Sometimes they get it right, as applies to the morons in this story, but too often they define things that apply primarily to "the little people" because they impact the rich. Until we do away with the current plutocracy, most people can be found to be committing "crimes" all the time. All it takes is you offending someone with money (influence) or power and they can find a "crime" to charge you with
Re:Even easier (Score:4, Insightful)
How about just leave it at never commit a crime.
That's a great idea, if you can enumerate the more than 50,000 (that's where they stopped counting) federal crimes alone you might be committing. Those don't count the state and local crimes you might also be committing. There are enough crimes on the books that you are very likely violating a handful of them every day without even realizing it.
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Criminal law is so arcane that it's very difficult to avoid any criminality whatsoever, especially when laws contradict each other. It's an opportunity used by bureaucrats to punish uncooperative or politically opposed people, at the heart of "SLAPP" or "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation".
I also hope you'd agree that there are times to deliberately broadcast the violation of an unjust law, even if that law is still in the lawbooks. This was at the heart of Gandhi's civil disobedience, and Mart
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leave it at never commit a crime
Imagine if the Boston Tea Party guys or Rosa Parks took your advice.
The world would be a pretty different place.
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The Boston Tea Party participants at least made it harder to find out who they were after the fact.
Seriously, folks, tin foil. It's not just for hats.
OK, aluminum foil, wrapped around the phone, works, too, but it doesn't follow the meme.
Re:Even easier (Score:4, Insightful)
How about just leave it at never commit a crime. You don't even need a phone or to be near a WiFi network to follow that.
That seems fine until you realize that in some countries criticism of the government, failure to cover your face in public if you're a woman, and being homosexual, are all crimes. It doesn't roll off the tongue as easily, but "never commit violence, aggression, destruction, theft, or fraud" might have been a better choice of words. Even at that, both the definitions of and the justifications for such actions are context-dependent and subjective.
Re: (Score:3)
While I agree with you, I just want to point out that there is an exception to what you describe: civil disobedience. These are protests to unjust laws on the book and set out by deliberately committing a crime. Two very famous examples are Ghandhi's salt march and Rosa Park's refusal to give up her seat. And then there is of course the Boston tea party.
Now you may counter that civil disobedience is effective only without the mask of anonymity. Consider democratic protests around the world - the latest bein
Re: Even easier (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? A few men (not kids, they are all 18) decided to vandalize their school with toxic graffiti and you think they're fighting the good fight against The Man?
You're a fucking idiot.
They're not rebels. Not even rebels without a cause. They're adults, they're assholes, they earned an appropriate amount of jail time, I hope they got felony records and restitution penalties as well to pay for the clean up.
It's people like these stupid assholes that make it so we can't have nice things.
And yeah, now that I think about it... you're still an idiot.
"We're fighting the government oppressors, Maaaaaan!!! Righteous!!!! We gots rights to fight for our right to party!!!"
Idiot.
Re: (Score:3)
They're not rebels. Not even rebels without a cause
Some of you younger fellers might not remember the scene where James Dean paints swastikas and N-words all over the town hall. Ho-boy that was some good old-fashioned entertainment.
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If they had thought of doing all those things, they should have just thought the initial idea was pretty stupid and decided not to do it at all.
If they were at the stage of thinking about the consequences, they probably wouldn't have done it.
Re: Who leaves WiFi turned on? (Score:2)
No one turns the wifi off. Power saving from that is negligible.
Re: (Score:2)
You don't have your phone setup to automagically turn it (and data services) off when the screen is off?
Re: Who leaves WiFi turned on? (Score:2)
No. I want to receive push messages from different services. Why would i turn data services off?
Baretta 2019 (Score:4, Funny)
Don't tag the school tho’ your teacher’s uncool
No, no, don't do it.
Don't do the crime, if your wi-fi’s online
Yeah, don't do it.
And keep your eye on the sparrow.
When the going gets narrow.
Don't do it, don't do it.
Where can I go where my web trail won’t show,
Now.
Well, well, well.
We don't catch the smart ones (Score:1)
While volunteering at a triathlon, I spent a few hours with an Ohio State Trooper at an intersection. He said the previous night he responded to a bar fight, and of course one of the guys involved had warrants. I said, "if they were smart ...". He cut me off and said, "We don't catch the smart ones.". What I was going to say was, don't be getting in bar fights if you have warrants a.k.a. don't be breaking the law when you're breaking the law.
Impressive demonstration of stupidity (Score:3)
If their phones logged into the WiFi (i.e. it is an encrypted one, not an open one), they must have set that up at some time. I think giving them an overall evaluation of "pretty dumb" and no diploma and have them pay to have the damage removed would have been perfectly adequate.
Re:Impressive demonstration of stupidity (Score:4, Insightful)
Kids and adult with unknown technology will always lead to negative outcomes. When school districts started handing out computers, many students ended up disabling the computers over christmas. They ended up with failing marks when they came back, and typically these kids swore that they did nothing and they did not deserve bad grades because it was a problem with the school computer, not them. In fact the students had installed various software so they could play games and watch videos, which dibbled the interface to the school network, and required a wipe.
I also suspect that there are a few people around here that remember that text first became a thing. I am sure those that do know at least couple whose marriage was put in peril, if not destroyed, because one spouse stupidly put their infedilites in writing, writing that is pretty much indelible.
The way I see when a tech is new, or when kids are just learning about it, the stupidity can be forgiven. Not that the crime can be forgiven. We depend on people not thinking all eventualities through to solve crimes. This is especially true with kids who think they are invincible and need to be destroyed every once in a while to make a point.
However, when tech is old, or you are dealing with adults that should know better, then this is where sheer stupidity comes and we can justly laugh at people who do not have the sense that god gave a rhubarb. For instance, the Daily Show would have interns look at tapes from Fox News, and then use the worst bits of those recording to make fun of them. Fox News was livid and apparently it never occurred to them that technology could be used to do this. This was a generation after everyone and their grandmother owned a VCR. p: Likewise people are still under the impression that if you setup your Facebook correctly, it will be private. The internet has been running for years, and anyone under the age 30 has grown up on it. The first rule is everything on the interest it public, and everythings can potentially be traced to an original source. Believing anything else just make you more stupid that the kids who rob liquor stores with a gun and think they are not going to get executed when they kill the owner.
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Perhaps not. Many schools and public places run an unprotected, password free guest network. Many people set, or allow, their phones to use any avaiable network automatically. It's proven convenient for many people, including me, to use even an unprotected local wifi network rather than an expensive and sometimes unavailable cell data network.
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Well, these here did some set-up, because the story said they they logged into the network. Identifying students from their SSIDs would still have been possible, sure. So we do not actually known from the story what the situation is.
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Don't we?
"The students' phones had automatically connected with the school's Wi-Fi using their unique logins. "
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Don't we?
"The students' phones had automatically connected with the school's Wi-Fi using their unique logins. "
Missed that part. So we do know they were incredibly stupid.
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Many people set, or allow, their phones to use any avaiable network automatically.
More phones are set up to use known networks automatically. Normally you worry about connection to some hacked network, so you don't want that to happen automatically. But you would assume that if you connect to your school network all the time during the day, it would be safe, and no reason to worry about it and not connecting automatically.
What happened here is just unexpected forensic evidence. Like it's perfectly safe to touch a coke can. It's not perfectly safe to touch a coke can and leave at the p
Not enough in many places (Score:1)
We had a student who used his keycard to enter a computer lab and then steal a lot of expensive GPUs we know this because the teacher who discovered the crime was the last to leave and the first to arrive in the room the day after, with exception of the student who we could see had swiped the card.
The police was like: could have been someone else using the card, will not investigate, case closed.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, but these idiots probably confessed.
NOT prison (Score:2)
They were NOT sentenced to PRISON.
Fort pity sake... (Score:1)
Bunch of teenage hooligans caught through their own stupidity. This isn't a Big Brother issue. This is a daft thug teenager issue. They deserve what they get. Reminds me of the footage I once saw of an idiot trying to rob a service station with a shaving creme mask that promptly melted off exposing him., Stupid is as stupid does.
Brave new world (Score:2)
Jail sentence, not prison (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
I knew a young woman that had to do two weekends in the county lock up.
It's not full time prison, however she learned her lesson.
She's fine now.
fixed the headline (Score:3)
'Never Commit a Crime'
there, much better.
Sorry ... but ... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
OK.
You explain to the judge you were just trying to spread Buddhism.
Re:"hateful symbols"? (Score:5, Insightful)
The verb "cleave" has two definitions—separating from something or or sticking to something—that have opposite meanings. In much the same way, the fact that the swastika has historical roots as a symbol of peace does not mean that it is not also a symbol of hate. We use context to figure out which meaning is intended.
As a handy guide:
- If you're at a Buddhist site, it's being used as a symbol of peace.
- If you're anywhere else, it's almost certainly being used as a symbol of hate.
Re: (Score:3)
And why exactly is that modded as "troll"?
The swastika was in most cultures either a "wheel of the sun" or a symbol of luck and fertility. It is a wheel made from 4 plows ... there are also other interpretations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
In some (many?) societies, it only means hope or peace when reversed from the Nazi orientation.
Re: "hateful symbols"? (Score:5, Interesting)
Nonsense. They were the standard teenaged rebels without a cause. They did something stupid and got caught. Cleaning their own graffiti off of the walls and a few beautification projects around town is about right.
Note, since even they don't really know why they did it, it's hard to say there was real hate there. (and from what we know of neuro-development at their age, they quite likely LITERALLY don't know why they did it).
How would folks have reacted if they were black? (Score:3, Insightful)
Whenever I see people being generous in their interpretations of the motives of miscreants caught in some shady act, I play a mental exercise: what would the reaction have been if the perpetrators were blacks dissing whites, or Muslims dissing the west? I suspect the reaction would have been far less accepting/forgiving.
To be clear, I am not suggesting that you, MR. sjames (1099) would have reacted any differently, just society as a whole.
Re: How would folks have reacted if they were blac (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
It's kind of a mixed bag. I suspect some people would be calling for blood, some would be more lenient.
But as an exercise for the reader, consider, "cracker" and "honkey" are both permitted on prime time television.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Even 13 year olds should have known better.
They did know better. But they did it anyway, as teenagers often do. Disobeying the rules is the whole point of adolescent rebellion.
Some community service over the summer is an appropriate punishment.
Jail time is not.
Re: Note the framing (Score:5, Insightful)
Disobeying the rules is the whole point of adolescent rebellion
LOL. When I was a teenager, we disobeyed some of "the rules" not because they were "the rules", but because we saw them as unjust or pointless. For example, we had various limits on books we could read, music we could listen to, haircuts that we could not have, or even jokes we weren't supposed to tell.
So, we read them, we listened to it, we got the haircuts (and were taken to the school barber shop and shaven), we got the bad "behaviour" marks and the fallout that came with it. Eventually, we grew up and removed the system that made the idiotic rules, a system that was imposed on us by a foreign military power.
What these idiots are demonstrating is that they are stupid. It is not a behaviour that will eventually produce a useful outcome.
The punishment they deserve is to repair the damage they have done. What else do they deserve? Education and better parents.
Re: (Score:3)
So what do you suggest, there should be a couple unjust pointless rules so adolescents have something to rebel against?
Oh, please. There is never a shortage of stupid or unjust rules you can rebel against. The tricky part is to figure out which ones are worth rebelling against most and picking your battles.
But wisdom, if it comes, really does come with age.
No, wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Wisdom comes with experience, with learning how to live your life so that you find it was worth it at the
Re: Note the framing (Score:1)
No, I am Kevin Ham.
Re: Note the framing (Score:5, Insightful)
High school seniors. Likely 18 years of age. Men. Don't make excuses for criminal behavior.
Re: Note the framing (Score:2)
And you can't get a senior discount until age 65. What makes you think adulthood is defined what rules apply to you?
Re: (Score:1, Informative)
Regarding hate crimes, consider the example from this article. Just vandalizing the school is a crime. Painting randomly on things is willfull destruction of property. Actually painting swastikas and racial slurs goes beyond that. It has the effect of intimidating or terrorizing people. It should be obvious that one goes further than the other
Re: no such thing as a hate crime (Score:1)
They are kids that did something stupid. I much less doubt they were going for ideological believers but instead something they thought would be provocative and showcase.
They are going to be held accountable. Why is everyone so quick to want to destroy their life. It feels like everyone here suddenly forgot what being a teenager was like. You do really dumb stuff.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
There is no such thing as a hateful symbol or hate speech. There is no 'bad' speech in the US, the closest thing you can do to abridging free speech is criminalizing enticement to violence.
This is all about damaging private/public property, the message can constitutionally have no effect on the punishment.
Where did you get your law degree? You are dead wrong, indeed there is such a thing.
Free Speech is not an absolute right in the United States; there are many exemptions to the 1st Amendment Right of Free Speech clause. In the case of these young vandals, their message is fundamentally exempt from 1st Amendment protection because it is obscene.
In that all hate speech is obscene, it is not protected speech. [wikipedia.org]
Re: "hateful symbols"? (Score:1)
Yea but he's a lawyer, so important information doesn't matter to him.
Re: Sexism (Score:1)
Other way around, it is the girls who are 12-14 described as women.
Fox News: "The businessman stands accused of sexually abusing underage women at his residences in Florida and New York."
New York Magazine: "Jeffrey Epstein, the man now accused of running a sex trafficking ring involving underage women, some of them in their early teens."
New York Times: "Very embarrassing that [Labor Secretary Alexander] Acosta is one of the people whoâ(TM)s supposed to protect underage women from being sold as sex slav