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Florida Teen Charged With Felony Hacking For Changing Desktop Wallpaper

colinneagle writes: A 14-year-old middle school student in Holiday, Florida, was arrested this week and charged with "an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access," which is a felony. The student reportedly used an administrator password to log into a teacher's computer and change the background image to a photo of two men kissing.

The student also revealed his secrets after he was caught – the password was the teacher's last name, and the teacher had typed it in in full view of the students. The student said many other students used these administrators' passwords (their teachers' last names) so they can screen-share and video chat with other students. The student was briefly held in a nearby detention center, and the county Sheriff warned that other teenagers caught doing the same thing will "face the same consequences."

3 of 629 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I probably would've gotten the death penalty... by rjforster · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Windows logo in the Flying Windows screensaver was from the Wingdings font. Using Wordpad you could edit the screensaver binary and change the character that gets displayed to another one from that font. So at various times in the Win3.1 era people around me were found to have flying smiley faces, flying skull and crossbones etc.

  2. Re:thank God they didn't have computers.... by weilawei · · Score: 5, Informative

    You don't define who's trespassing on your property when they have a customary reason to be there. You can't take the mailman to court for trespassing, you can't take the police to court for chasing a suspect through your house and out a window, and you can't take a registered solicitor to court for trespassing (provided they leave as soon as you ask). If the fire department shows up with a reported emergency, they can bust in and there's not shit you can do about it. Building inspector? Same deal. Health inspector? Yep.

    A registered solicitor leaving a flyer is NOT considered littering. You cannot win that in court. Ever try to get rid of Jehovah's Witnesses? They always leave shit. Good luck.

    You don't define it. Trespassing is defined by the law, which allows you to take certain actions to encourage a certain set of people to leave, but it does not automatically mean that anyone who sets foot on your property is trespassing just because you don't like it.

    TL;DR: The world is more nuanced than your "LALALALA FINGERS IN EARS" view of things.

  3. Re: Must example set of him by C0R1D4N · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the defense of our continent sized nation, Florida is the laughing stock of America.