Slashdot Mirror
Student Logs Teachers Keystrokes
handy_vandal writes "A 16-year-old student has been charged with a misdemeanor for rigging a keystroke-recording device onto a teacher's computer. School district police received a tip from students that the boy was trying to sell answers to final exams. The District Attorney's Office has charged the teen with breach of computer information, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and up to 180 days in jail. This sort of thing has happened before. The problem is so pervasive that the GRE board has switched from computers back to paper and pencil."
My wife just started teaching 9th and 10th grade high school math. I gave her a little crash course on basic computer security (including watching out for keyloggers!)
It's common knowledge that the kids are smarter than the teachers, computer-wise... but hasn't it always been that way?
Most people I meet don't necessarily think computer security is a problem past virii and adware -- and it shouldn't necessarily be their problem, it requires better design. But could their be a lesson here as to the importance of real-life, practical security needs?
Every computer added to a classroom is another nail in the coffin of modern teaching. There is nothing added by adding a computer, but much is taken away.
Computers ought to remain in "computer labs" and perhaps on the desks for specialized "computer classes", but they definitely don't belong anywhere else.
Creative usage of computers for teaching is a copout on the kids. By removing the teacher/student relationship and replacing it with an inanimate object, the kids lose out on a great deal of education. This is why home-schooled kids typically do better in college than "computer schooled" kids do.
Is it any surprise that the more technology becomes a part of these kids' educations, the more likely it is that the bad apples are going to find ways to exploit the system?
...uses a keylogger DONGLE?
Seriously. Did he think that the teacher wouldn't notice a DONGLE that was added to the computer?
Please. At least use a trojan-type keylogger, or something even slightly covert.
if they placed the computers (with the tests) someplace better. As /.ers know, the most important part of computer security is physical access.
Remove the computer (with the tests) to somewhere that only teachers' can go, and you'll mostly eliminate the problem, without resorting to pen and paper.
Before we all start to scream bloody murder this, fascist law that, I would like to say that this kid got what he deserved. He is not a victim here. The victim is a teacher whose privacy was violated and the attorney deserves our support this time. This case is completely unlike the one of DVD John or Kevin Mitnick. The 180 days in jail is nothing in this case. So please, let's stop our knee-jerk reactions and congratulate the law enforcement just once when they in fact have done a good job. No need to panic here, no need to remind about 1984 or the Third Reich, because this kid was the one who was spying on his teacher and who belongs in jail. This story is only about "Your Rights Online" because your rights could be as easily violated like the rights of that teacher were violated by his student. We need to be protected from spies, be them MIAA, NSA or our students.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
Not a thing. It has to do with a dishonest kid who got busted doing something wrong. But sure as the earth turns, someone here will twist it into some dark big brother scheme to strip the common man of our rights. Somehow.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
This isn't some poor misguided kid who got thrown in jail because the "lab monitor" saw him using "that Linux hacking tool" on the school Windows machines. Nor is it some grey-hat hacker pushing boundaries. When you actively go and install a keystroke monitor on a machine that is not yours, you're out to get information that you shouldn't have, period. It's totally premeditated, too - it's not like he was poking around in /tmp and found a MS Word auto-save backup file with the answer key in it, or was rummaging around in the trash can because he dropped his retainer and found the answer key - he deliberately went and got a keystroke logger and put it on the machine. There's no possible way to spin this as an innocent kid getting screwed.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
Perhaps I'm way off base here, but I assumed the person with violated rights was the teacher. I'm sure people in other professions risk having their clients log keystrokes or otherwise violate privacy. Of course, the school board (employer) could log keystrokes, but that's entirely different.
-- SYS 64738 --
A Class B misdemeanor. Maximum punishment of $2000 and 180 days in jail. When ever there is a crime reported in the news, they always list the maximim possible punishment. Makes it sound much worse.
How much you wanna bet he gets a fine and community service? Not all judges automatically give out the max punishment, especially for a first time HS kid offender, and especially for a crime where there was no physical harm or actual property/monetary theft
How ofteh do you check the connections to your computer, I meann REALLY check them, like close enough to see if there's something extra there? How about a work computer, where it's under a desk? How about one that you don't manage, that someone else takes care of?
When you get down to it, most people won't notice for a long time. My computer is even exposed, and I walk past the back of it every time I go to sit down and use it, and I have to admit, it'd probably escape my notice unless I was doing some maintenance. I simply don't look closely at the cables regularly, no reason to, and a casual glance wouldn't register a small difference in the bunch that comes out the back.
It's quite effective, on PS/2 computers at least. Main problem is decyphering the data later, since all you get is keystrokes, in the order they came in. IF it's someone who multitasks ans switches apps a lot with the mouse, or does lots of mouse cut n' paste, you can get a real jumble that's hard to understand. However for a username/password combo, usually easy to find.
What's the typical jail sentence for stealing an exam key in a school? Hell, when was the last time someone got convicted for cheating during during a school test?
but a fine and the threat of jail time isn't the answer.
I disagree. People seem to think that commiting crimes on a computer is somehow "not as bad" as the normal physical crimes of theft, tresspassing, etc. People need to be taught at a young age that doing things like putting a keystroke logger on a teachers computer is a real crime and not just harmless fun.
If that kid gets a job in an office and throws a keylogger on his bosses computer he will get into some real trouble and rightfully so. They need to learn early on that this kind of behaviour is unnacceptable.
But this is slashdot so I expect a bunch of replys saying that it is not the kids fault but it is the schools fault for not securing their computers.