Charges Against High School Hackers Dropped

ZosX writes "According to eSchool News Online, the 13 students from Kutztown, PA originally charged with felonies for hacking have been given a deal, dropping charges in exchange for 15 hours of community service. From the article: 'The probation department realizes this is small potatoes,' said William Bispels, an attorney representing nearly half the accused students. This is great news for the students and their families."

Comments

Unfair!

[biryokumaru]

When I got in trouble for hacking my high school network, we all got 50 hours of community sevice!

Lame.

Re:Unfair!

[boisepunk]

Zero Cool would be proud.

Re:Unfair!

[biryokumaru]

Maybe he went to high school in San Francisco.

*cough*

Re:Unfair!

[Thud457]

Our bad --

turns out the kids were just using Firefox.

Sorry about that whole destroying your life thing.

-- The Mgt.

Re:Unfair!

[Viper Daimao]

I think he would be more crochety.
Zero Cool: "Back in my day, we didnt have physical access to the computer with the password taped on the back. No, we hacked the gibson from payphones with our 28.8 modems and pentium 1's, and we liked it!"

Either that, or he'd be too busy with Acid Burn. My god, have you seen her lately?

Re:They are not bright kids.

[KiloByte]

They are not sleazy enough.

HA

[Anonymous Coward]

Changing an admin password on an iBook considered hacking. I have heard it all now. I got a similar letter sent to me from a University I once attended but my one stated that I broke 14 out of the 16 rules they had in the computer policy. The other two were too lame to break.

They started to get worried when I told them how easy it was to crash the University ATM machines. Of cource I got caught as I was cocky like most young kids. They set up a stink ( rather funny thinking about it now). They told me that I was the biggest ever threat to the University ever ( I felt proud ). Ah well I went away and got my computers degree elsewhere.

But Where Is The Community Service ?

[Anonymous Coward]

15 hours in New Orleans right now would be tough going - they might want to re-do the plea bargain back to a felony !

Re:No Registration Required

[Stephan Schulz]

The trouble began last fall after the school district issued some 600 Apple iBook laptops to every student at the high school, about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Well, if they dump 600 iBooks on every student, no wonder they get in trouble. You need a minor warehouse just to store them...

And so...

[flajann]

I am sick of the term "hacker" being used as a perjorative. But I've beat that dead horse before...

What peeves me about this story, and a similar one, is that in both cases there was a lamatable lack of security-mindness among the school staff. Leaving passwords taped to the back of computers is the same as not using passwords at all. I consider this the failure of the staff members to exercise simple-minded commonsense security procedures.

In the other case that I have in mind, the teacher left her desk without password protecting her computer, which would've taken her 2 keystrokes to do. A student went to her desk and altered grades. Everybody nailed the student, but *no* attention was given to the very plan fact that the teacher left everything wide open.

And another criticism. Most school staff are clueless about computers anyway; the students can very easily run rings around them. If a technology is going to be used, then that technology should be fully understood by the adminstrators and staff. After all, a teacher *is supposed* to be smarter than the students he or she is teaching, right?

I recalled being so bored in school all those many years ago because I was light-years ahead of the techers in the areas of math and science -- even in their so-called "advanced placement" courses. It was all largely a joke as I recall.