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Student Faces 38 Years In Prison For Hacking Grades
the brown guy writes "An 18-year-old high school student named Omar Kahn is charged with 69 felonies for hacking into a school computer and modifying his grades, among other things. He changed his C, D and F grades to As, and changed 12 other students grades as well. By installing a remote access program on the school's server, Kahn was able to also change his AP scores and distribute test answer keys, and could be looking at a lengthy prison term. Not surprisingly, his parents (who have only recently immigrated to America) have decided not to post the $50,000 bail and Kahn is in jail awaiting trial."
Even being a security researcher I might find some of those tasks non-trivial. In highschool I'm pretty sure that kind of action was out of my league. He has certainly learned something.
Summary is unnecessarily sensational.
I'm willing to bet the 38 years is if he gets convicted for all the charges, and doesn't get any concurrent sentencing - very unlikely.
Beetle B.
It's amazing how they can turn a talented, although with obvious problems kid, into an outwright criminal. He is 18, for God's sake!!
Sure the kid is an idiot, but does he deserve 38 years? That's insane.
Kick him out of school. Hold him back a year. Put him to work in community service.
People who think he deserves 38 years in prison for being a teenage idiot probably deserve to be in prison themselves.
Surely a combination of barring him from ever entering an academic instution again, access to computers, heavy community service, etc etc would be more of an effective punishment then the state feeding, clothing and sheltering this guy for 38 years. I'm not being soft on the guy but it seems like if he had commited a violent crime he would have been looking at less time.
Forget the post being sensationalist, what about the legal system? What kind of legal system (or university or whoever is bringing the prosecution) pushes for 40 years for this kind of thing? Clearly not one that expects to do any public good...
-1 not first post
...priorities have changed. We see our government running rough-shod over the laws it holds us to, and we think, why must I follow these laws too? If the gov't can remove freedoms, liberties and rights in the name of 'homeland security' why can't I too bend/break the rules in the name of 'financial security' for my family?
Blar.
Who is supporting him? No one is saying he did a good thing, they are just saying 38 years is pretty insane for changing some grades. You can get less time for killing someone. Or maybe even two someones.
I don't know what so unsurprising about that. No parent wants their kid to spend time in freakin' lockup. Further, they can leverage $5,000 of real dollars with a bail bondsman to post $50k, so they just need to sell the kid's computer and scrape together a few thousand more to spare him potentially weeks behind bars.
Heck, banks will loan the money for bail, and I seriously doubt they get the loan-shark like interest the bail bondsman would.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Guys like this should be sentenced to public service instead, for example to working for free as an assistant computer teacher for a year, under monitorship from the authorities. That'd turn his obvious competence into something useful, as well as being a net benefit to the society economically.
That's 38 years under tax payer care. Honestly I say find a way to put him to work with the talent he has so he's not as much a burden and keep him under heavy watch as he does the work.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
I mean...what the kid did was dumb, granted. But should his ENTIRE life really be completely ruined because he tried to cheat and boost his test scores in fucking high school? Seriously? There are rapists that face less jail time. Murderers who face less jail time. Corrupt politicians who start wars with other nations, unprovoked...that face no jail time. And you're going to hop on the "he's getting what he deserves" bandwagon? Shit, I *DO* support that kid. And yes, he's just a kid. A dumb, arrogant kid that made a stupid mistake. But in the end, no ones been harmed except himself. Expell him from school. Make him repeat the 12th grade. Let him stand on his own two at a community college until he can prove that he's ready for a 4 year program. I just don't think this is worth destroying a life over......
Ok, so the kid is a greedy one, changing all of his grades to As ;)
But he is also not very socially bright, think about the other 12 kids for whome he changed the grades, someone was bound to talk. Or maybe a parent saw a dramatic grade change and called a teacher for whatever reason etc.
You just don't include 12 more people into your 'crime'. It's not a secret anymore after that.
Still, 38 years is just nuts. Make him pass the highschool exams again, put him into community service (with the other 12 kids by the way.) Also fine him for a few thousand bucks for the trouble and that should be that. His parents will take care of the rest of the punishment, I am certain.
Anyway, Khaaaaaaan! I suppose.
You can't handle the truth.
I'm at a loss for words. His misguided juvenile shenanigans could net him a longer sentence than rapists, murderers, pimps, drug dealers, etc. When I was a kid they would've hauled me into the office, given me a stern lecture, and encouraged me to use my skills in a productive & positive way.
This sort of outrageous over-reaction & immoral litigiousness only results in disdain for the legal system, law, and public institutions.
For the juvenile hacker, maybe community service plus a few months prison on probation.
In case of the telecoms, it is important that lawbreaking is not legalized by the mere say-so of the government. Because this would seriously undermine all laws that are designed to protect the citizens from government harassment.
The "helping in good faith" should count as mitigating circumstance, but not get them completely off the hook. Let's say fines for those reponsible, plus also a few months prison on probation.
C - the footgun of programming languages
Voila. The ball's in their court. If they ignore it then they deserve to get owned. If they fix the issues you can drop them a note saying congratulations. If they haven't done anything in six months send copies of your correspondence to the local news and watch the fireworks fly as Link Beefingham and the WHAX Investigative Flying News Squad descend on your school for a live, in-depth report on how the administration refuses to protect Little Johnny and Susie from child pornography, Chinese military hackers, and internet jihadists.
"Principal Landingham! Principal Landingham! WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?"
This kid was probably very bored in school (much like I was) and I think we can all remember how "locked down" those stupid high school computer networks are. Sometimes, the more you lock something down, the more the end user wants to get around road blocks. To bad they couldn't have used this kids skills to find vulnerabilities in the network or make something positive out of his knowledge.
"During My Service In The United States Congress, I Took The Initiative In Creating The Internet." -Al Gore
Okay, let me try to parse this one out.
and who are all such sticklers for prosecuting lawbreakers, I'm sure you want to see this guy prosecuted too, right? Yes. but it is inconsistent to claim you are all so concerned about the law being followed when it is a corporation trying to help out after 9/11 When you say "help out" I assume you mean that time the telcos let the government illegally strip-mine all of our conversations with no judicial oversight whatsoever, just because someone in the intel service said "no, no, it's cool. You're fighting terrorists."Or did AT&T help a kitten out of a tree or something?
but when it is some hacker who is a lot more like you nerds than AT&T happens to be, will you be consistent? I don't even know what that's suppsed to mean. After all, who else's grades did he snoop into? Twelve of his friends. Did you even read the article? For the record, I think it is grossly excessive, and sad that young people can get 25+ years for doing things similar to what I did in high school when most of it wasn't illegal then. Breaking and entering, burglary, and falsification of public records wasn't illegal when you were in school? I am for telecom immunity for companies that tried to help after 9/11 in good faith, and relied on the government's assurances that they would not face legal sanction. I'm sure you are. I'd imagine that this hacker got no such assurances from authorities before he broke in! He's not a hacker. He's a common criminal and burglar who managed to see someone's password. Don't make him out to be anything else.Sounds like he was at the age where the contents of the sweater were more interesting than the sweater itself.
This kid isn't a genius. He's not talented. He isn't some sort of super child that did this because he was bored in school. He's a stupid script kiddie. He downloaded a keylogger from the internet then broke into the school office and installed it. What a computer wiz. The kid's a douche and this sentence probably just saves the court some time down the road. And he won't even get 38 years anyway so quit whining about how long that is.
He is facing "up to" 38 years. That means that if you take all of the charges against him, and he gets the max prison term for all of them, he will be in jail for 38 years. The chances of that happening are zero. What is going to happen is that if the evidence against him is good enough where he (his lawyers) think that he can't win, he will just make a plea deal with the prosecutors. If he serves any time after pleading guilty and making a plea deal, it will likely be under a year. In all likelihood he will just get put on probation for a few years. Probation sucks, but it beats prison... and well, it is supposed to suck. It is a punishment, and punishments tend to suck.
We look at the crime, but not at the intention behind it. If we did, the same punishment should be meted out for someone who is caught cheating on his tests. The intended result is the same: Getting a grade he didn't earn the "legal" way.
Why is hacking a computer to fudge the grade worse than using cheat sheets? Why isn't anyone who cribbed his doctor thesis facing 40ish years in prison (which is, IMO, a worse offense than cheating with your grades, we're talking about a thesis that allows you to bear a title, which does hold a lot of meaning in some countries)?
Look at the crime, not at the way it was committed.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I.e, he was above 5 years old?
Seriously tho, if you find a sweater more interesting than whoever is inside it, there is either something wrong with you or you've found some damn cool sweater ( Was it made of carbon nanotubes perhaps ? ).
He really did 38 years worth of damage to society by hacking a high school? Really? Whom did he hurt?
+++ATH0
Criminals are not caught this way, amateurs are. This guy is clearly not a seasoned criminal and he should not be treated like one. I hope he does not get jail time from this. This is obviously just a kid making a mistake.
unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
38 years in jail is way too steep, any jailtime would probably be.
But this is no where near "just a mistake". It is not a one-time break-in to prove that security is insufficient. He was deliberately and continously (34 times alledgedly) "altering public records", for his own personal benefit.
Even if your security is inadquate it doesn't mean that it's not a crime to break in, and even if it does, fraud is still fraud.
He should get the exact same jail sentence as the people involved with the 2004 Ohio vote fraud.
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
He has commited crimes. That merits punishment. If he had not commited those crimes, none of this would have happened. Ultimately he chose to have this happen when he illegally hacked into the school and altered not only his but also others grades. Nothing else is relevant. He IS a criminal, and the damage he has done is to everyone who depends on the system he defrauded.
38 years in jail is way too steep, any jailtime would probably be. But this is no where near "just a mistake". It is not a one-time break-in to prove that security is insufficient. He was deliberately and continously (34 times alledgedly) "altering public records", for his own personal benefit. Even if your security is inadquate it doesn't mean that it's not a crime to break in, and even if it does, fraud is still fraud.
No, it's not "just a mistake". But in cases like this, I think it's important to keep perspective. The effective results of his actions weren't particularly criminal. I mean, yes, what he did was technically a crime, but the effects of the crime weren't particularly different from if he had just cheated outright.
So probably (I'm guessing, because I don't know the kid or all the details) the guy deserves to be expelled, and put in a position where he really has to work his ass off to earn his way into any college. Community service wouldn't be a bad idea.
But I agree, jail time sounds like a bad idea for a situation like this. It's not just "too harsh", but you have to wonder what the effects of sending him to jail would be.
When your 18 years old, you still have a lot of time ahead of you, and a lot of learning-- for better or for worse. This guy probably still has the potential to turn it all around and be a productive member of society, but if you send him to jail, you're probably going to diminish that potential. Instead of learning to be productive, he'll be socialized to the jail environment, which means learning the wrong things, ie things that will actually make it harder for him to function appropriately in general society.
I think we should generally be cautious about sending young people (even over the age of 18) to jail, unless we feel that they pose a significant continuing danger or that they absolutely cannot be rehabilitated.
I wouldn't be too sure on the skills part of it; most school networks are ridiculously easy to break into. School districts can't afford to hire good IT guys, so they pretty much get the bottom of the barrel; I remember that I once got access to all the teachers' files completely by accident. Fortunately (for the school district, at least) I was a rather good kid and showed them how I did it.
Some jail; around 6 months.
A far sight better than 38 years, which is more than some murderers get.
When this student commits another crime in an attempt to get ahead, such as stealing an identity, and when he gets caught, then throw the book at him. But right now? It's kind of immoral to punish someone in advance for something we think it possible that they may do, at least without ample evidence that they are in the process of planning to do it in a very specific manner.
Personally I think it is a shame that you get less prison time for murder than you do for hacking into your schools computers.