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Church Elder/'Jeopardy' Champion Charged With Computer Crimes (mlive.com)

Stephanie Jass, a record-setting, seven-time winner on Jeopardy, has been charged with two felonies for accessing the email accounts of two executives at the college where she worked as an assistant professor. An anonymous reader quotes MLive: Jass was able to access the accounts because of an April 24 issue with the college email system, hosted by Google. Frank Hribar, vice president for enrollment and student affairs, said there was network outage caused by loss of power. On April 25, users received a text message with a generic, standard passcode: "Please attempt to login to Gmail using this password. You should be prompted to change password after login..." Not everyone, however, was prompted to do so. Some did make the change using a tutorial. Some received an error and were unable to create a new password, the timeline states. Others did not alter the password at all. The method "worked just fine, had there not been manipulation of the system," said Hribar...

Jass, 47, of Tecumseh was charged in December with unauthorized access to a computer, program or network, and using a computer to commit a crime, both felonies... On May 5, the college deactivated Jass' email account and access to all other college software. The locks to her office door were changed and her desktop computer was confiscated, according to the timeline.

The police report "indicates Jass accessed emails while using an internet network at First Presbyterian Church of Tecumseh, where she served as an elder."

44 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. power loss = reset passwords ???? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    power loss = reset passwords ????

    1. Re:power loss = reset passwords ???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well look at the statement made after filling in the implied subject nouns left out:

      The method to prevent manipulation of the system worked just fine, had there not been manipulation of the system, said Hribar...

      With such logic, it doesn't surprise me a bit that a power loss results in reset passwords.
      They probably print out all the students SSNs on papers that are put up on the walls for all to see every time it rains too, because why not?

    2. Re:power loss = reset passwords ???? by PhunkySchtuff · · Score: 3, Interesting

      power loss = reset passwords ????

      Even more to the point, power loss at a local facility = reset passwords for gmail ???

    3. Re:power loss = reset passwords ???? by toadlife · · Score: 2

      They probably use federation to log into their gmail accounts; something like Shibboleth or ADFS or CAS. When the power went down, their federation server went down with it, which locked everyone out of their email accounts. At my work we use Office 365 and ADFS to do federated logins. We've generally don't have extended outages, so this hasn't been a problem, but some schools with more flaky architecture have elected to place backups of their AD domain/LDAP/SAML infrastructure in the cloud to prevent these types of outages.

      --
      I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
    4. Re:power loss = reset passwords ???? by jrumney · · Score: 1

      also... reset passwords = a generic standard passcode ????

    5. Re:power loss = reset passwords ???? by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I've encountered this in environments claiming PCI, HIPAA, and FIRPAA compliance. The IT person asked to clear up lost passwords, en masse, is specifically told by their manager to send clear text one-time passwords, and may be told not to expire them, and is even told by their manager to use the same password for all one-time users. Objections are overridden as "wasting people'e time" and "interfering with the business". The result is that there may be dozens of accounts in even a small business where low-use email accounts are accessible for forged access for indefinite periods.

    6. Re:power loss = reset passwords ???? by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      That just boggles the mind. A temporary password that works for all accounts? And then if, out of sheer disbelief, you check whether you can log into someone else's account like that, they throw you in jail for hacking?

    7. Re:power loss = reset passwords ???? by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1
    8. Re:power loss = reset passwords ???? by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      Please, don't confuse the behavior of mishandling passwords for convenience with actual abuse of those mishandled passwords. The abuse was a separate, later behavior by the previous "Jeopardy" winner.

    9. Re: power loss = reset passwords ???? by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      In Soviet America, password hacks you!

  2. motive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    The shitty summary doesn't even mention motive.

    Non story.

    Captcha: grassy

  3. Clickbait headline by mark-t · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The fact that this person was a former Jeopardy champion, or the fact that she may have been recognized as an elder of some church is entirely irrelevant except insomuch as it might make some people who wouldn't otherwise give two shits about what this person did to instead click on the link to read about it.

    1. Re:Clickbait headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "School employee accesses colleagues' emails without permission" doesn't sound as good.

    2. Re:Clickbait headline by blindseer · · Score: 1

      The fact that this person was a former Jeopardy champion, or the fact that she may have been recognized as an elder of some church is entirely irrelevant except insomuch as it might make some people who wouldn't otherwise give two shits about what this person did to instead click on the link to read about it.

      I agree, somewhat. A former Jeopardy champion, and therefore a minor celebrity, breaking the law is perhaps news. A church elder breaking the law doesn't sound like news to me, how many people even know what a "church elder" does?

      I'd think what would be more interesting of a headline is a college professor was caught trying to blackmail a fellow professor. I'd think a more appropriate headline would be, "Professor/'Jeopardy' Champ Caught Hacking College E-mails", or something like that. I'm sure some pedant might not like my grammar in my example but it's a headline, I'm trying to keep it short. Being a Jeopardy champ shows this is something of a famous person, and the mention of being a professor shows the relationship to the victim, the college where she worked.

      I'll occasionally hear on the radio about some legal troubles of a local guy that was also on some game show. I don't care enough to remember the guy's name or what show he was on but it seems someone cares or it would not be news.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    3. Re:Clickbait headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Christianity is still incredibly popular, so most people know what a church elder is and does.

      And, as they all know, church elders are chosen by their community, in part, because of their solid moral values.

      So, church elders accused of a crime has shock value.

      This should all be obvious.

    4. Re:Clickbait headline by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

      It may cause Alex to release a statement that the former champion obtained undue prominence if they used their Jeopardy!-level smarts as part of their being hired or kept.

    5. Re:Clickbait headline by arth1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Christianity is still incredibly popular, so most people know what a church elder is and does.

      And, as they all know, church elders are chosen by their community, in part, because of their solid moral values.

      Um, no, I bet most people do not know this. Most christian varieties don't have elders, and while they may have heard the word, would have no way of knowing whether they were elected, appointed, graduated to being one, or just got old.

      Don't presume that everybody else lives in your tiny world.

    6. Re:Clickbait headline by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      I know about no christian cult in Germany that has 'Elders'.
      Josuas Wittnesses perhaps or Methodists ... the only Elders I see are 18-20 year old americans trying to mission in Germany ... which is kind if funny as everyone ignores them but they are always super confident ... and Elder would be translated into 'the older one' in German, and such young guys are called Elders.
      Anyway, people who never saw such 'Elders' walk around and connect them to a christian cult, don't know what an
      Elder is supposed to be.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    7. Re:Clickbait headline by labnet · · Score: 1

      Just about every Protestant based church has a local board of elders that oversees the church staff.

      --
      46137
    8. Re:Clickbait headline by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Just about every Protestant based church has a local board of elders that oversees the church staff.

      This is mostly the case for Presbyterian-derived churches (Presbyter = elder), but many other protestant denominations have no concept of elders. They may have people with similar functions, but tend to call them other things like pastors or deacons.

      In fact, I'd think most Christians except those from Presbyterian-derived churches would think of Elders as young Mormons knocking on doors.

  4. Re:Church elder, 'eh? by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Funny

    Whatever happened to 'Thou Shalt Not take advantage of they neighbor's inept security practices'?

    I'll take hypocrisy for $1000 Alex!

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
  5. Bad move. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Informative

    From TFA:

    Jass admitted to school authorities to accessing the emails of Docking, Caldwell, Assistant Vice President Bridgette Winslow, several unnamed fellow faculty members and students, including her stepson. She made these acknowledgements May 8 in a meeting with Human Resources Director Renee Burck; Vice President of Business Affairs Jerry Wright; and Patrick Quinlan, president of the faculty union, according to a timeline put together by the college and contained in the police report.

    If I've learned anything about crime from corporations, it's that you should deny everything until the end of time and frustrate the prosecution endlessly until they are willing to let you go with a slap on the wrist but without admitting guilt.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Bad move. by thomst · · Score: 2
      Gravis Zero noted:

      From TFA:

      Jass admitted to school authorities to accessing the emails of Docking, Caldwell, Assistant Vice President Bridgette Winslow, several unnamed fellow faculty members and students, including her stepson. She made these acknowledgements May 8 in a meeting with Human Resources Director Renee Burck; Vice President of Business Affairs Jerry Wright; and Patrick Quinlan, president of the faculty union, according to a timeline put together by the college and contained in the police report.

      If I've learned anything about crime from corporations, it's that you should deny everything until the end of time and frustrate the prosecution endlessly until they are willing to let you go with a slap on the wrist but without admitting guilt.

      It's worth noting that being a former Jeopardy! champion doesn't mean you're immune from acting foolishly.

      There's a reason why Gary Gygax made Intelligence and Wisdom separate character traits, even way back when the D&D ruleset consisted of three stapled pamphlets in a white box ...

      --
      Check out my novel.
    2. Re:Bad move. by DingerX · · Score: 1
      Probably tenure-related. She was an Assistant Professor, which is traditionally non-tenured, but probably tenure-track; most likely, she was up for tenure soon. She talks to another professor who was "since promoted". A professorial promotion procedure has quite a bit of bureaucratic inertia, and so I imagine it has to have been already on the books by this point. So let's say that's two professors up for tenure, imagine the following situation:

      The email reset happens, and Prof. Jass first posts to FB about it, then goes poking around in the emails of Mr. President (Docking) and Ms. Vice-President (Caldwell), probably to find out what's up with the tenure dossiers. She finds that Ms. VP is looking to hatchet some junior faculty she doesn't like, including her friend (and possibly herself), and she finds that the President is discussing some presidential stuff. Someone in this is alleging that Jass saw material protected by attorney-client privilege, so if we connect one dot too many, we can say that one of the "academic staff in need of mentoring and improvement" was the subject of an inquiry by the president concerning how he should treat public/personal relations with a member academic staff. Jass has lunch with her friend and says, "hey, remember that email breach? Well, I got this Mr. President's email. He's gonna accept Ms. VP's recommendation that they deny you (and me) tenure. But after class he's secretly slipping Adjunct Professor X the tenure track." [alternatively, the "crookedness" could be denying tenure for purely economic reasons, while giving everything the color of academic grounds. But that's boring]

      An even better scenario: The "whistleblower" Professor was the one with the President. Ms. VP is furious that Mr. President is endangering the college's integrity, and fires off an angry email, relating the problems that such an event has for the promotion procedure, and using some choice words to describe the whistleblower. Prof. Jass has lunch with the whistleblower.
      However it happens, Ms. Vice President takes a job somewhere else soon after. The possibilities are endless, and we'll see how far the college collaborates in the investigation, and how hard they try to keep those emails confidential. Academics are notorious gossips.

      The professor, since promoted, learned this during a lunch meeting with Jass on May 3 at an Adrian cafe. The two talked of academic staff in need of improvement and mentoring, Jass revealed the document on her cell phone, and told her associate it was from the accounts of Docking and Caldwell. "During the conversation, Jass commented to (the professor) that Caldwell did not like her and that Docking was 'crooked,'" states the report, obtained this week through a Freedom of Information Act request "Based on the tone used... (the fellow professor) stated that she felt like the information was being downloaded for blackmail although this was never verbalized."

    3. Re:Bad move. by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      Someone may be intelligent enough to figure out how to break the law, but lack the wisdom to get away with it.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
  6. Please please please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    tell me she has a brother named Hugh.

    1. Re:Please please please by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      She also knows a seat cushion tester named Maya Surts, and is part of a working mother's support group with Erasmus B. Dragon.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  7. Ken Jennings by mmdurrant · · Score: 1

    I read the title, saw "Church", "Elder", and "Jeopardy champion". The first two made me think "LDS" because of my upbringing and that plus Jeopardy champion... well.

    --
    I see my shadow changing, stretching up and over me...
  8. Re: Church elder, 'eh? by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 2

    I haven't found a good church since I left Mt. Zion of Atlanta... most churches I've encountered are about getting power for the speaker, regardless of law or court decisions.

  9. Re:"accessed emails while using an internet networ by arth1 · · Score: 1

    Please tell me how they suppose how you'd do the one without the other.

    If you went dumpster diving and found printed out e-mails, you would be accessing e-mails while not using an internet network.
    But there's such a thing as local mail too. And uucp. And many other ways to transfer, deliver or read e-mail that does not require an internet network.

  10. Re:What a waste of fine pussy. by arth1 · · Score: 2

    Jass is a very attractive lady, I was very interested in dating her.

    I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but c'mon:
    https://peopledotcom.files.wor...

  11. also... by buddyglass · · Score: 2

    She plays Learned League, and is a damn sight better at it than I am.

  12. WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So wait a second. There was a power outage. Somehow that equals reset passwords. Then they apparently send the same temporary password out to everybody via text message? The IT guy should be held in criminal contempt.

  13. Re:What a waste of fine pussy. by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

    That's a photo ID picture and hence awful. If you met her in a bar she might look OK.

    Admittedly I've spent too much time in Asia so anyone with blonde hair and blue eyes is an immediate eye catcher. Plus there's the fact she is clearly somewhat smart.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  14. Worked fine?!? by SecurityGuy · · Score: 1, Insightful

    They set ALL the passwords to the same thing, then told EVERYBODY the password, and that meets their definition of "working fine"? That meets my definition of fundamentally broken.

  15. Re:But this is not a crime... by SecurityGuy · · Score: 1

    Yes, it is a crime. It meets the criteria of exceeding authorized access under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Any reasonable person will understand that just because some bonehead set everybody's password to the same thing, that doesn't mean you have been given permission to access everyone's email. Should whoever caused all the passwords to be given out get a new job? Yeah, probably. That person isn't necessarily an admin, though. Sometimes admins are required to do things they know aren't a good idea.

  16. Re:Clickbait for hate-driven Leftists by denzacar · · Score: 1

    Moral hypocrisy is only a part of it.

    A priest is a combination of a teacher, psychiatrist and a direct representative of g-o-d to children, and often to their parents.
    Not only are they a person of immeasurable authority, however irrational that may be, they are also privy to secrets of family and community the child is living in.

    The level of trust and power over the lives of children they are given, and the accompanying responsibility, is incomparable to almost any other - apart for those of a parent, personal physician and a teacher.
    All persons whose life calling is literally to always have child's best interests in mind.
    That's the scales on which such crimes are to be measured.

    And when such high level of trust is betrayed... the responsibility side of the scales slams down on them.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  17. Re: Fix de bugs instead of blaming the attacker! by anegg · · Score: 1

    In this case, given the relatively trivial "protection" placed upon the IT resources in question, the organization can't have placed much value upon them. It would seem to me that a felony charge is not warranted, as a felony implies harm to something of great value.

    Its not a felony to poke around in unlocked filing cabinets in your colleague's locked offices that you entered using the office master key hanging on the hook in the break room. It may not be nice, but it is not a felony.

  18. Re:But this is not a crime... by anegg · · Score: 1

    It may be a crime, just like walking in your neighbor's using the key they hid under their potted plant may be a crime. But it shouldn't be a felony. A felony implies great harm to something valuable. If the organization cared so little for their IT resources that they protected them so laxly, a felony charge is not warranted.

  19. Re:Church elder, 'eh? by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    Ah, the vaunted 13th commandment, come right after "Thou shalt not gouge the desperate."
    Most American's don't get that far.

  20. Stephanie Jass? by metamatic · · Score: 1

    Is her husband's name Hugh?

    --
    GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
  21. Re: Fix de bugs instead of blaming the attacker! by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

    In Soviet America *everything* is a felony.

  22. Re: But this is not a crime... by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

    CFAA is a badlaw. It feeds harmless people into the Gulag meat grinder so gratuitously that it brings the Law itself into popular disrepute.

  23. Re:Clickbait for hate-driven Leftists by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Not to mention the Catholic actions in protecting priests, which included putting them in other situations with contact with children. Those were definitely newsworthy.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes