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Felony Charges For H.S. Hacking

Posted by Zonk on from the barely-even-hacking dept.

jayrtfm writes "Last year the Kurtztown Area High School approved a program which gave every student an iBook. Now 13 students face felony charges for violating the district's usage policy." From the article: "Shrawder said the secret password '50Trexler,' was widely-known among the student body and distributed early in the school year. It allowed between 80 and 100 students to reconfigure their laptops, he said. The more computer-savvy students began to disable the administrations' ability to spy on the students' computer use. For others, it became a game, trying to outsmart the administration and compete with fellow students who held the secret, Shrawder said."

22 of 824 comments (clear)

  1. Lets get the facts straight by LogicX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This news was also reported in the Reading Eagle/Reading Times.

    In that article, it was said that the students were accessing porn sites, and HAD infact hacked the administrative network.

    However, living in this area, I feel it necessary to point out that the papers around here can't handle technical articles, and and usually get the facts wrong. For all we know, they got the admin pass, and disabled the proxy (which was likely the n2h2 Bess Proxy), and all of this is being blown out of proportion.
    Once more facts become clear, maybe we'll learn why the rest of the 80-100 students weren't charged.

    I attended and worked IT for Conrad Weiser Area School District which is about 20 minutes away from Kutztown, where we had the BCIU come in to do a lot of work on machines. The BCIU is clueless, and security is their lowest priority. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the BCIU worked with Kutztown High to setup this network, making it all the easier for these kids.
    Also, here are the nyud mirrors of the links:
    FAQ
    Kutztown Area Patriot Article
    Laptop Initiative

    --
    May this post be indexed by spiders, and archived for all to see as my Internet epitaph.
    1. Re:Lets get the facts straight by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As a high-school senior who's managed to avoid getting in trouble for computer stuff, I'd like to share my experience.

      If you want to bypass any restrictions, find out if the teachers mind. Many times they won't. (I was once asked to send an e-mail from school, and our school filters block all webmail..or at least they think they do.)

      If you end up doing something that you think they won't mind but they do, as soon as they say something, apologize, and stop doing that. And it helps to show yourself as a white hat ahead of time, so they know you're not solely trying to break their security.

      If you're doing something that you know they mind, reconsider why. Is this something you can't do more safely from home, or from a public library or Internet café?

      If you're looking up porn from school, you're a ****ing idiot. Same goes if you're breaking into important stuff for the fun of it.

    2. Re:Lets get the facts straight by nkh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you want to bypass any restrictions, find out if the teachers mind. Many times they won't.

      And they won't mind either if they don't understand what you want to do. The problem comes when they understand what you told them and it's too late. You'll be the only one who "touched the computer", you're the only one who "knows how it works": you're responsible. I suggest that you ask for some kind of paper signed by a teacher before doing anything. I know I'm too much paranoid but it's always safe when you have a physical proof to show when something bad happens.

    3. Re:Lets get the facts straight by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You can be more rebellious, doubly so since you're a senior.

      Altering the OS of your school provided laptop is probably not illegal, depending on what exactly you do. Unless you're unleashing a virus or destroying hardware, I really doubt anything will stick. I'm guessing this is the kind of thing the ACLU would help you with if you actually got in trouble.

      Accessing material over the internet by using existing holes in school firewalls/proxies is NOT illegal. Most of us do it all the time at work because our IT departments are insane (but leave port 80 open with a proxy to censor us...may as well just leave them all wide open). Anyway unless you are attacking their network (router, firewall, proxy) in some way, it's not illegal or even immoral.

      Now hacking in to their network, changing grades, destroying machines, altering network configurations, that's all illegal, immoral and just plain mean spirited. As with any other crime however, you should absolutely not admit to anyone what you've done without the counsel of a lawyer. This goes for any crime, even a speeding ticket. You have the right to remain silent, use it. Even if they promise to let you off, bring in a lawyer. Never play around with such things, I know some honest people who thought they were doing the right thing and got it handed to them. The right thing is to remain silent.

      The more money it costs to enforce idiotic network policies and excess legal entanglements, the less likely anyone is going to want to be involved with it. If it isn't actively hurting someone, then I think after this neo-fascist insanity passes, people will ignore it.

    4. Re:Lets get the facts straight by raju1kabir · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Anyway, we were all learning to program and one of the more savvy programmers wrote a program to calculate PI and store the results to the HD. Once he finally got it working he wanted to try to run it on the server as a benchmark. Well, we were all new to programming and it turned out that the program used an infinite loop and wrote directly to the HD. Yes, that's right, it accessed the HD directly, on the hardware level.

      I call BS. This is the most implausible story I've ever read in all my long years of reading people's stupid made-up stories on Slashdot.

      --
      "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
    5. Re:Lets get the facts straight by FredMenace · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If they choose to screw around rather than doing their homework, they're probably going to fail their classes, no? And if they're failing to do the required work, you focus on that. Say "do what else you want with your time, but do get your homework done." Some of them DID say that certain teachers used game playing etc. as a reward for finishing work, and that it was very effective.

      Porn I can agree should be kept off those computers, and there would probably be some jousting between students and tech support over this, but the draconian lockdowns do NOTHING but taunt the kids into breaking the rules. (Even these kids were operating under self-imposed rules, such as not messing with the server, not deleting any programs, etc.)

      It's the arrogance of "educators" that usually gets in the way. Once they start trying to prevent the kids from messing around a little, it can turn into a war (and a source of entertainment for the kids, as well as a distraction from their actual schoolwork), then the teachers/administrators can say "see, I told you so, they only want to fool around and distrupt things, they don't want to learn".

      Regardless, I bet those kids learned more constructive skills during that schoolyear from the hacking and yes, from playing computer games (not to mention dealing with the stupidity and arrogance of the people in power), than they were likely to learn in their classes.

  2. I just don't get it by Pxtl · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What is it that causes legal-types to completely lose their marbles whenever anything high-tech happens? This seems roughly the equivalent of doodling in a textbook (in eraseable pencil) and sharing a Maxim magazine around in the halls. Hardly a felony.

  3. In-house punishments please! by garcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "I knew it was against school policy," he said. "But I didn't know it was a felony."

    Of course they didn't. You know why? Because, "Students who violate the computer policy will be disciplined" does not imply that criminal charges will be filed. It implies that the students could receive in-school sanction.

    This is a bunch of hyped up and unnecessary bullshit. If you're going to give laptops out you better bet that they are going to be used for unintended purposes. By bringing criminal charges you are doing nothing but wasting even MORE of the taxpayers dollars for something dumb.

    Discipline them in-house (like they did to us in high-school - made us sit in the hot school all summer doing NOTHING - it's worse than paying a fine and doing community service)

  4. Re:Inept school officials by Pxtl · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I know. The school could have had just as good an effect by suspending those involved briefly and billing their parents for the board tech's time required to re-image the ibooks. Instead, they decide to jump on the "Cybercrime is teh evil!" bandwagon and go apeshit.

  5. Stupid by Bones3D_mac · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why are they giving these children felony charges for being intelligent enough to see through such pathetically weak security? At the very least, the school should have assigned each machine a separate password based on serial number.

    In all seriousness, if they really wanted to ensure security on these systems, they shouldn't have allowed the students to take them out of the school.

    --


    8==8 Bones 8==8
  6. @#$@# Educators! by salesgeek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Am I the only person here that thinks that it is the most flimsy form of chintz that educators use the legal system and literally ruin students futures over something so minor as this...

    Wait a minute - the administrators have to show them who's in charge... and having the cops do their enforcement... that'll show them.

    --
    -- $G
  7. Secret? LMAO! by Oldest+European · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Shrawder said the secret password '50Trexler,' was widely-known among the student body..."

    If it's widely-known, how can it be secret? ;-)

  8. Re:Locked down laptops... by Pxtl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unfortunately, said leash was made of paper. Nobody's arguing that the kids were in violation of school rules when they hacked their own laptops - what we're arguing against is that a) the school is filing felony charges for a discipline issue b) the school is charging the students instead of their security people, and c) there exists felony charges that can be applied to such a minor crime.

  9. The same thing.. by CyricZ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    .. the same thing that caused many Americans to lost their marbles after Sept. 11: FEAR caused by a LACK OF UNDERSTANDING. These politicians do not understand technology, hence they fear it with all their might. And the legal response by politicians to fear is to pass fucking moronic laws.

    --
    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
  10. It was an asinine password anyway by Roofus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's see, the postal address of the district office is.....50 Trexler Ave!

    50 Trexler Ave.
    Kutztown, PA 19530

    Excellent, nobody would ever think of "50trexler"

  11. Nerdy anecdote by 5n3ak3rp1mp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So it was freshman year in Cornell, 1990, and I had doubly no hope of getting laid, being a freshman and also a geek guy, the one girl on my floor that I had a crush on ended up dating some jock, so I fell in with a group of cool malcontent geeks who liked to play early Mac network games looong before they existed on PC's (all hail Spectre, Bolo, and NetTrek 3!) and got to breaking some rules.

    At the time, Cornell was Mac-dominated (oh, happy memories) and the Upson lab had a network of IIci's just waiting to have their security hacked. I forget the tool that was used, but we figured out that it stored the password in a certain file that we could reach by bypassing the file security with Norton Utilities for Macintosh (haha Mac OS 6 security, bah). We procured a copy of the software, installed it and created a password on my own IIci, then took a copy of that file (with the obfuscated password) and replaced the file on the lab IIci. Instant admin access.

    But we didn't stop there. We had such organization that we managed, as a team, to use this trick to install a fun little background process called NetBunny... on ALL the macs in ALL the labs. NetBunny does nothing on its own, but paired with a little utility called StartWabbit that we pointed at any campus AppleTalk network we wished, would begin the chain reaction. What then happened is that the Energizer Bunny would walk across the screen thumping the drum, going literally from screen to screen across the whole lab. It was pretty much a riot, if you were in on the joke, but the admins couldn't figure it out (we had hidden the executable well through obfuscation by renaming it and pasting another icon on it) and after they heard the recognizable "thump, thump, thump" sound would jump up and run around helplessly yelling "It's the bunny!!" We did it a few times with "agents" at each location to witness the mayhem. Good geek times.

    I think it's the nature of very talented people, that when The System is not challenging them sufficiently (or when they refuse to take on the offered challenge due to lack of interest or motivation), that they seek out their own challenges, and fun.

    I don't think these kids should get punished this harshly. Felony charges? Simply for trying to break the rules? Please. Face it, it takes some effort and talent to break in, it's just misplaced effort and talent. Find a way to redirect it. I mean come on, it probably started with some high-school geek starving for attention who wanted to seem cool.

  12. I am an IT Director in a High School District... by xorowo · · Score: 3, Insightful
    ...and I think that pursuing felony charges is going too far. It shouldn't be too difficult to figure out how the password was leaked, and the person that leaked it should be punished harshly. I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for student crackers. That said, I imagine that the letter is designed to scare the crap out of the students, more than it is designed to suggest an actual imminent arrest.

    I just dealt with some students who abused positions of trust (as tech aides) to install keylogging software on multiple computers. We came down hard on the student who initiated this because he used the information he gathered to access email and grades of the teachers whose passwords he caught. I never considered recommending this to the police, though, because I knew that we could suggest expulsion (which we ended up on a compromise with the student and his parents on) and scare the student into not doing this again. Or, at least, we now know who he is and we can ensure that he won't do the same thing.

    The primary downside is that high school computer experiences shouldn't have to be as controlled and locked down as they are in most places. While we absolutely need security surrounding our student information system, grades, attendance and teacher files, I don't like locking down computers and trying to force certain behaviors. Let these kids work normally on the computers and be clear about what is appropriate. Locking them up will only, in the end, produce exactly what these district's saw -- students who do everything possible to break the security.

    Oh, and the parent who said, "and I don't know that it has cost the taxpayers any money" is delusional. Everything I do in my job costs the taxpayers money, so if I have to spent dozens or hundreds of hours tracking down the source of a security breach instead of working with students on a multimedia project or with teachers on instructional applications, then it costs money.

  13. Re:Thoughts from a parent by ExTex · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm unfamiliar with the term "asshat" but I think based on the context of your post I get what you are saying. My hypothetical reaction is based on the absurdity of the situation. Charging a child with a felony for a transgression that would be best punished by at least a detention and possibly a suspension, is a far greater issue. Fighting a felony charge would cost real money and the stakes for the child as well as the family would be sky high. A felony conviction for a minor would be an awful thing to carry for a lifetime. Especially for this type of violation. You are absolutly right that too many kids aren't held accountable for their actions. This is sadly a shocking and extreme case.

  14. Re:Know what I'd do? by symbolic · · Score: 4, Insightful


    I'd hand it right back. "No thanks".

    The students had a wonderful opportunity to show what a complete failure such draconian policies can be. But, just like with illegal file sharing, they'd rather push the other way, and end up further behind than when they started.

  15. JESUS FUCKING CRIST by t_allardyce · · Score: 3, Insightful

    FFS never mind this, why the fuck are kids being given laptops in the first place? High school students have NO use for all this equipment, they are going to use it for music, porn and games and very very occasionally write a report on it. Seriously is it that important to waste that much money so some students can do word processing?? what the fuck happened to using the computer room or their home computer or even just writing with a bloody pen? This is just an insane waste of resources for no purpose other than to hype the fact that everyone has laptops. Yeah sure it would be _nice_ to give kids laptops but at the moment it just costs too much, when the price eventually drops to a reasonable level then this will be a viable option. For the price of this project they could probably have afforded smaller class sizes, useful equipment or more one-to-one tutoring. These computers will be useless in a few years - many of them will be broken (they're not designed to last forever), some lost or stolen, and the rest will be nearing the end of their useful life as glorified word-processors with computing power that would have only been found in a Cray a few decades ago. I would sack who-ever is responsible for this and who ever DARED to pass the buck for their mother fucking failure on to kids that are doing what kids do (at least they aren't jacking cars).

    --
    This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
  16. Re:Thoughts from a parent by w8300v-2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This reminds me of something I saw on the local news (Houston, TX) about how things like chewing gum in class are being classified as 'disruption of class', and these kids getting 'tickets' and the parents having to go to court and/or pay fines. I can see a kid getting into 'the system' for something like drugs or bringing a weapon to school, but chewing gum? Talking in class? And of course, it's always the kids whose parents can't afford to fight it that wind up with these kind of 'punishments'. I'm not that old, but 'back in my day' kids got into trouble like that for dealing drugs or trying to burn the school down.

  17. You guys are missing THE most important facts. by Zyxwv88 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm surprised that no one has noticed this. The school district REQUIRED students to use the school laptops, even if they had a laptop at home that they could have brought in and used. The school district also REQUIRES teachers to implement the laptops into the curriculum so they are used. The school district has monitoring software so that they can spy on the students. Basically they are providing themselves with tools that they can spy on students, requiring students to carry those tools, and if students disable the spy software, they get charged with felonies. Am I the only one that sees a problem with this? If my kid was in that school district, I'd be visiting with a lawyer and/or other organizations to get some changes made around there. This is a total invasion of privacy, but it's been glossed over as a "free" laptop, so people have looked at it as a good thing instead of the invasion of privacy that it also is.