Slashdot Mirror
3rd Grader Accused of Hacking Schools' Computer System
Gud writes "According to The Washington Post a 9-year-old was able to hack into his county's school computer network and change such things as passwords, course work, and enrollment info. From the article: 'Police say a 9-year-old McLean boy hacked into the Blackboard Learning System used by the county school system to change teachers' and staff members' passwords, change or delete course content, and change course enrollment. One of the victims was Fairfax Superintendent Jack D. Dale, according to an affidavit filed by a Fairfax detective in Fairfax Circuit Court this week. But police and school officials decided no harm, no foul. The boy did not intend to do any serious damage, and didn't, so the police withdrew and are allowing the school district to handle the half-grown hacker.'"
Zero Cool strikes again. Mess with the best, die like the rest!
Just curious.
...so the police withdrew and are allowing the school district to handle the half-grown hacker.
Of course, that's just what they are telling the press. In reality, of course, the boy is being put in charge of a supersecret underground Government cybersecurity lab on a deserted island even as we speak.
Send this kid to study with Knuth immediately.
I am officially gone from
I thought I was only kidding when I said the security on Blackboard was so bad a 9 year old could hack it.
This sounds like BS to me. If Blackboard was so bad, they would fail in the free marketplace and be put out of business. Since the value judgments of the free market are beyond reproach, the fact that Blackboard still exists and in fact is very expensive, means it is highly valuable and therefore good.
I suspect you are just a communist detractor with elitist opinions.
...their IT folks are not smarter than their 5th graders.
Yeah, preteens ain't got any skillz unless they've coded their own sploit. I bet this kid doesn't even know how to write kernel patches. What a retard.
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
It can sound like BS to you but a third grader just fucking owned the system. Even AOL wasn't THAT easy.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Rumor has it the password was PENCIL.
Agreed, noone starts programming w/o ever seeing someone elses code.
I suspect Ada Lovelace may disagree with you on that one.
It's Blackboard Learning System (BLS) - many schools use it. Chances are he did it through URL manipulation. I tried to get my son the hack it but he refused. He said, "I don wanna know about web sites and stuff and then end up haffin to fix Mom's computer like you, Pop." Broke my heart. :(
or be sentenced for life to use Access
Oh, come on -- it couldn't be THAT bad.
Some dumb teacher probably just left their admin password laying around on a post-it note[...]
The password was "pencil".
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
And you had to walk uphill both ways to school with 5 1/2 floppys tied to your feet because you couldn't afford shoes. We know Grandpa we know.
I've got a six-year-old girl, and the only one that I'm worried about is #1. If that happens before she's ready, then I have failed as a father.
#2 gets rewarded. "WTF did you do here? I've got physical access and you've locked me out. Let me order you some RAM and you can show me what you did." (She uses Puppy now.)
Long before #3 happens, there would be a legal and media shitstorm to keep her out of jail. We've got a family lawyer, and really, Blackboard, do you want Everyone to know that a teenager can easily bypass your security protocols?
She got one of her friends to give up their "webkins" password. It's really hard to tell her "that's wrong" when you're really thinking, "fucking AWESOME! High five and ice cream!"
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
You kids today! They were 5¼" floppies, dagnabbit and we had to make them ourselves out of leaves—which we couldn't even afford—we had to steal those from the rich neighbors across town to which we had to walk in eight feet of snow, uphill backward both ways at the same time with the sun beating on our backs as the sand filled our eyes with not a trace of water visible for miles and constantly slipping on the ice, breaking our bones over and over—bones which were on loan from the charitable twelve-year-old boy next door.
I don't think many teachers really understand the word. I got suspended from school for "hacking" and bringing down the school network.
I was in computer lab, which were all Macs, and not "Cool" Macs everyone has now, but the big square brick shaped monochrome screen macs. We had one PowerPC I think. Anyway I digress. So I was in lab finishing up an assignment, when I saw an option in the menu to "encrypt" my floppy disk after I had finished saving (as if I haven't dated myself already). Knowing what encryption was, and thinking it was neat that the option was available on the Mac I encrypted my floppy with a password to protect all my really important and top secret labs etc..
Fast forward to the next day. I get brought into the Principals office in the morning, and accused of taking down the system. To which I have no idea what the hell they are talking about.
Anyway long story short, my buddy that was sitting beside me, saw what I did, thought it was neat, and tried it himself. The differance being rather than selecting the "A:" drive... yes that's right he selected the "C:" drive. Encrypted the whole damn computer.
Big deal you say? Well this was back when people still used "Ring" networks, which required being able to talk to its immediate two networked neighbors to function properly. One of them now a lump of encrypted uselessness. Though in defense the system was set up by our Grade 10 math teacher, not an IT professional.
The guy also had no idea what he had entered for his password. Whole machine had to be wiped and re-installed. Which they also made me do as "punishment" after my suspension.
Why did I get accused? Because they basically said my buddy wasn't smart enough to do it on his own, and that I "enabled" him to do it. So ya... that's how I got suspended for "hacking" when I was younger. I would not be surprised if it is something as idiotic or more so in this case.
Dear 3 digit UID /.er, we were talking about THIS century...
I'm getting off your lawn
Oh, it is so. much. worse. than mere "lock-in".
In order to help define their(utter shit) vs. the not-always-completely-brilliant; but far cheaper and better, FOSS competition, Blackboard has been expanding their offerings in new directions:
Physical Access Control Systems...
Video Surveillance...
And, yes, ID cards, cashless transactions(on and off campus), etc..
Yup. In order to protect their worthless core product from extinction, they've made it possible to bring the same level of quality to basically every corner of your campus and the lives of your hapless students. Be afraid. Be very afraid.