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Student Faces 38 Years In Prison For Hacking Grades
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Sat Jun 21, 2008 08:59 AM
from the wrath-of-kahn dept.
from the wrath-of-kahn dept.
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."
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Not a good hacker. (Score:5, Funny)
He got caught - unlike me, because I didn't brag about it on a public web site...
Re:Not a good hacker. (Score:5, Interesting)
Reminds me of a business school student who was caught hacking his way to president of the business school student body. He didn't verbally brag, but he arrogantly gave himself a landslide win - more votes than there were students. He didn't get prison but he didn't get his tuition back after being expelled.
Parent
Re:Not a good hacker. (Score:5, Informative)
He didn't get caught because he bragged. Evidently, he was caught after he requested an official school transcript for a university he was applying for.
Of course, if you read the article, you'd know that.
But hey, who reads articles? This is slashdot.
Parent
A for effort? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A for effort? (Score:5, Insightful)
Including breaking and entering, stealing, and how to receive stolen property.
Parent
Re:In these post 9/11 times... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:In these post 9/11 times... (Score:5, Interesting)
I can agree to that. When I has in grad school I was applying for a scholarship (because I could not afford the school) and was told I was beat out by a foreign student with much better grades than me. A month later they offered me the scholarship (and instructor in charge told me that the transcript they received was forged and the student did not have perfect grades). So what this Omar guy did was trivialize the grades of the students who actually got good grades and worked hard for them (possibly ruining their chances at getting into a great school). The real victims are other students not the government or the education system.
Parent
Re:Public Schools? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, that should be funded by "state" taxes. Very little federal money funds the public education systems of various states and that money is generally earmarked for specific purposes outside education like the school lunch and breakfast programs.
When you look at the dollar amount spent on public education in any given state, the entire federal budget for education is generally a small in comparison of that. Take ohio for instance, It spends around 11-19 billion in primary and secondary education each year before any federal money is assessed. In comparison, the feds (NEA) only spent 38 billion on the same education. If that were divided by the 50 states, that's like 700 million or so per state and this isn't counting DC or outlying territories. When we look at the fact of some stated being poorer then others, needing more funding, it goes down even more. But for the majority of situations, federal funding is going to be only a small fraction of most every state's education funding.
I will agree that the school represents the government but for different reasons. These reasons are that the government has put their faith behind the results and reporting of these schools to provide legitimacy to them. The federal government has an interest in a state's credential too. When someone undermines that by purposely presenting false information or altering information certified by the state, then there is a reason to be concerned. In essence, I see changing grades as being no different then fake IDs or impersonating a police officer to defraud someone.
Parent
Re:In these post 9/11 times... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd tend to agree with you, if we were talking about adults trying to take care of their families. Surely, there are at least SOME desperate people out there who feel like govt. has caused much of their financial hardship in recent years - and they have to "step things up a notch" to get back out of the hole they've fallen into.
But we're talking about a high-school student here. His biggest responsibility in life is probably his schooling, and *earning* his grades. I think it's a stretch to claim his cheating via computer hacking was motivated by post 9-11 events. Rather, it's the simple desire to find short-cuts to "get ahead by any means possible".
I agree with the people who say he probably "learned something" with his hacking efforts. I also agree that they're brining a lot of "trumped up" charges against him here. (Conspiracy charges? Uh, right..... His scheme SURELY was really all about undermining our government to overthrow it with his fake A in math!)
Nonetheless, they can't just let this go with a "slap on the wrist" either. Too many students spent a whole year of their lives working to earn those letter grades the right way.
Parent
Re:In these post 9/11 times... (Score:5, Informative)
Whilst I'm really not a lawyer, it's worth pointing out that the legal use of the word "Conspiracy" doesn't necessarily imply that it was a Government/Anarchic/Terrorism related thing.
As ever, Wikipedia has something to say on the matter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(crime)
"In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between natural persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement."
Parent
One of the comments posted to the story: (Score:5, Informative)
He's NOT a hacker!
Jun 19, 2008 08:21
He's just lazy and stupid.
First off, this idiot goes to the same high-school as me - Tesoro High School. The guy is a total loser who just wastes his time trying to act cool and trying to "party it up" cause his family is relatively well off.
The "38 years in prison" is just a tagline. He *faces* that much time in prison because of the 69 seperate counts of felony charges, but he'll probably get a fine and probation and that's about it. (Well, that and getting blacklisted from the major schools that he had no shot of getting into.)
Secondly, since when has installing a keylogger program on a computer been considered hacking? In which case, we're all "hackers" cause we installed software on our PC. He doesn't know the first thing about programming. He asked me to fix his spyware infested computer on repeated occasions. The guy would get others to do his work for him and pay them off. He even asked people to take the SATs for him! jeez!
Lastly, he's a lazy idiot. He got caught AFTER he was denied admission to the UCs (yes, he still got rejected with his modified transcripts), when he tried to appeal the decision and have more transcripts sent out - that's when the counselor noticed the discrepency. If he had taken the time to study for the SATs instead, he'd be in by now, even with his terrible GPA.
What a ridiculous world we live in.
Amit
Parent
MOD UP (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
1 day your hacking grades the next day NORAD just (Score:5, Funny)
1 day your hacking grades the next day NORAD just to play a game.
Parent
Re:In these post 9/11 times... (Score:5, Insightful)
More accurately--the kid just ruined his own life completely. Taking responsibility for choices we make is all part of growing up.
Parent
Re:In these post 9/11 times... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:A for effort? (Score:5, Insightful)
This kid is facing multiple counts. He's not facing 38 years for hacking his grades, he's facing a combined 38 years for over 69 individual offenses. Almost certainly, no single one of them carries a 21 year sentence.
Parent
Re:A for effort? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
38 years, if you are a moron (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:A for effort? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
tin foil hat alert (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:A for effort? (Score:5, Informative)
This guy was actually at a really expensive private school, one of the best from an academic standpoint in the country.
Parent
Re:A for effort? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
A better list of charges (Score:5, Informative)
Here is the list of charges against Khan
34 felony counts of altering public record
11 felony counts of stealing and secreting public records
7 felony counts of illegal computer access and fraud
6 felony counts of burglary
4 felony counts of identity theft
3 felony counts of altering book of records
2 felony counts of receiving stolen property
1 felony count of conspiracy
1 felony count of attempting altering of a public record
Re:A better list of charges (Score:5, Funny)
"You said altering records twice"
"I like altering records"
Parent
Re:A better list of charges (Score:5, Funny)
34 felony counts of awesomeness
11 felony counts of 1337 5ki11z.
7 felony counts of pwning n00bs.
6 felony counts of acting as an electronics deity.
4 felony counts of extreme overclocking.
3 felony counts of proving the Goldbach conjecture.
2 felony counts of saving the world from the Covenant.
1 felony count of conspiracy to pwn.
1 felony count of actually winning a fight against Chuck Norris.
Parent
Re:A better list of charges (Score:5, Funny)
Of course, if he really was a "1337 h4x0r" he'd have only bumped up a few of his grades, not given himself straight "A"s.
Additionally, the trial would have gone something like this: "The charges are ... uhmmm, sorry, but we can't seem to find anything about this guy in our system, hour honor. [mumble] I *know* I saw it yesterday ...[/mumble]"
Parent
Re:A better list of charges (Score:5, Funny)
Here is the list of charges against Khan
34 felony counts of altering public record
11 felony counts of stealing and secreting public records
7 felony counts of illegal computer access and fraud
6 felony counts of burglary
4 felony counts of identity theft
3 felony counts of altering book of records
2 felony counts of receiving stolen property
1 felony count of conspiracy
1 felony count of attempting altering of a public record
</blockquote>
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
Parent
Cumulative... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
What happened to common sense? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:What happened to common sense? (Score:5, Insightful)
38 years? 10? What's the "correct" number?
Remember that these numbers are thrown about by people who wouldn't want to spend a SINGLE NIGHT in prison.
Yes there must be consequences for his actions. But YEARS in jail? This kid isn't really a "threat" to society or someone who needs to be, what's the word they like to use now? - rehabilitated... It's just a dumb kid who needs to be taught a lesson. 38 years, or 10, or even 1 will probably break him and ensure that society gains yet another underachieving, useless supermarket bagger (if that).
Parent
Kamp Krusty (Score:5, Funny)
They don't know the half of it... (Score:5, Funny)
My school server is just as bad (Score:5, Interesting)
First off, desktops are fairly locked down. But the server itself allows for RDP connections with any username (not just teachers or students).
When you're on any old desktop, you can only access your own network share as a virtual drive. When you're connected to the school server, you get:
-Any documents (class of 2006 or 2007, class of 2008-2011, teachers, ADMINS)
-Network shares with installer sources and keys in text files (e.x. Microsoft Office 2007 Pro Plus with VLK, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9, EasyGrade Pro 3, Houghton Mifflin Test Generator to accompany textbooks, etc.)
-Access to the attendance share (which is outsourced, but the administrative login is kept on said server in house)
-Access to backups from the other schools (junior high, intermediate, elementary)
I was appalled when I found this out. For ethical reasons (and the legal penalties), I decided not to tell anyone or anything. Mainly because in 8th grade, my friend got his computer privileges suspended for the year when we told the computer staff that you could get a command prompt through Internet Explorer, and he almost got a disciplinary record over it.
We tried to help them, and he got in trouble (luckily, no legal issues).(We'd send NET SEND messages to other computers - e.g. "Jane, this is the computer. That's a nice purple sweater you're wearing
Ever since, whenever I've found a computer issue, I've kept my mouth shut, because it's not worth the trouble.
More on topic...this guy has what's coming to him. I think 38 years is too harsh (maybe a couple of years and more punishment in probation), but his malicious intent and clear intent makes me have no sympathy for him.
Re:My school server is just as bad (Score:5, Insightful)
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?"
Parent
Re:My school server is just as bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like he was at the age where the contents of the sweater were more interesting than the sweater itself.
Parent
Unsurprisngly DIDN'T post bail? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Better Summary... (Score:5, Informative)
The kid is also facing burglary charges because he stole a key to the school and used it to break in several times. The first thing to remember in this case is that it's not just a simple computer crime case, and that 12 other students also had their grades changed.
Further, of course the kid faces 38 years; every one of the small crimes he committed carry a maximum penalty. If you add them all up, you get 38 years. Obviously that doesn't mean that the kid is going to serve anywhere near that amount.
Now, I'm not sitting here saying that this kid should get 38 years. Far from it. But I do think that some jail time is called for. In addition to the burglary charge and the financial hit to fix the problems he caused, he hurt a lot of students. Consider this: For every one of the 13 kids who moved into the top 10% ranking, someone who had earned their spot had to leave. That student may not have been able to get into the college of his or her choice, and - far more importantly - may have missed out on substantial scholarship money. This kid wasn't just harming his high school through the added expense to audit records and security policies, he was hurting totally innocent fellow students.
I don't know... (Score:5, Insightful)
someone ratted him out? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Jail time, that will teach him (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, I'm not going to argue that he's obviously talented, but that's the sort of talent that gets you thrown into jail when misapplied
Parent
Re:Jail time, that will teach him (Score:5, Funny)
Of course it isn't. Unfortunately, we've outlawed all the fun stuff as "cruel and unusual punishment".
Parent
Re:Jail time, that will teach him (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know. If you are willing to break into the school's system to improve your grades, and generally compromise their data, I am not sure it is _they_ turning you into a criminal. I think, if you do that, _you_ are already over the line.
Parent
Re:Jail time, that will teach him (Score:5, Informative)
Also, he is an outright criminal. This isn't just Ferris Bueller slipping in to adjust his grades a little because he's too cool for school. Burglary, identity theft, multiple counts of fraud? Bueller? Bueller?
Parent
Re:Jail time, that will teach him (Score:5, Insightful)
They didn't "turn him" into anything. He's a criminal. Period. I could write it off as misguided teenage mischief if he had changed his own grades. Maybe even a grade or two for a girl he was attempting to woo, but he changed grades for twelve people, stole tests and answers and distributed them, and burglarized his school to cover up the fact that - even after proving he could steal test and answers - he was still cheating.
Where's the "talent?" The only thing he did was read someone's password to initially "hack" the system, and I'll bet $20 that the "remote access program" was something he downloaded from some site with a name like "Teh Supar-3v1L Bl4ck Haxx0rZ La1r!" Giving him a pass because it's a nonviolent crime makes as much sense as letting off anybody who tunnels into a bank because they were clever. He's not talented, he's a sociopath. He should be expelled from school and they should staple a copy of the police report to any transcript they send to a college.
Parent
Re:Jail time, that will teach him (Score:5, Insightful)
Thirty. Eight. Years. I am far from a bleeding heart, but my God, man! Imagine walking out of high school on your last day and realizing you're now 56. He'll miss the best 4 decades of his life. That's basically life in prison!
The pendulum's swung, and we have to get some sanity back into sentencing.
Parent
Re:Jail time, that will teach him (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, IANAL, but my father is the Asst. County Prosecutor, and I have to tell you that the "38 years" quoted in the article is probably calculated by summing the maximum possible penalties for all of the charges, and then assuming that he's an idiot in prison, too, and never recieves parole or other sympathies.
First off, he likely will not be charged with every single charge and given the maximum penalty and be forced to serve sentences consecutively. Remember that a judge still makes the final sentencing decisions, and is likely to take into account the fact that he is only 18, just leaving high school, etc.
If he even shows a bit of remorse, he'll likely get more community service time than jail time, anyways. (Which is probably to both his and the taxpayers' advantage.)
Parent
Re:PUNISHMENT FITS THE CRIME (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:So now... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Correction (Score:5, Funny)
You mean KHAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNN?
(additional caps-filter dodging text goes here)
Parent
Re:What would 38 years in prison achieve? (Score:5, Insightful)
With all due respect but disregarding what good prison would do this kid as "complete ignorance" is ignorance in itself. The kid is 18, even if he saw just a year of jail time, you mix him up with all kinds of career criminals you end up getting out something worse than what you put in. Or you could belive the incarcaration industry that he will come out a reformed character. Tag him, limit his activities, get him to do community service that gives a net gain instead of the cost of sheltering and feeding from the state.
I'm not against prison, I just think there are more effective ways of punishing him.
Parent