Student Faces 38 Years In Prison For Hacking Grades 645
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."
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:In these post 9/11 times... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:A for effort? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm not trying to diminish his achievements, I think somebody should be offering him a job or a fat scholarship right now. I'm simply saying it may be more trivial to wreak havoc in a high school than it would be a business.
That said, 38 years is too harsh for playing with grades and distributing answer keys. He's not going to become a healthy contributing member of society by going to prison for 38 years, and what damage has he done? Oh yes, he's inconvenienced the teachers a lot, but that's about it.
I thought teachers were supposed to mold students into model citizens, not get stupid amounts of vengeance upon them when they break their toys.
Everyone on Slashdot already knows this, but hey staff at Tesoro High school: DON'T PUT SENSITIVE DATA ON MACHINES CONNECTED TO A NETWORK! Obviously you need to do your grades the old-fashioned way: Pen and paper.
Re:What happened to common sense? (Score:1, Interesting)
Yeah whatever happened to common sense? I mean he just changed a grade right? And a little breaking and entering and stealing as well. Not a big deal. No one got hurt.
Down the road if he decides to falsify some information it won't really matter much will it? Maybe just cut and paste some analysis results so it looks like he did all the required tests. I mean come on? Those tomatoes likely don't have any salmonella bacteria on them. It'll be fine. Those toys? No lead in them. That pet food form China? Good stuff.
So what if he thinks he deserves more than he's paid? What's a little embezzlement. No one will miss a hundred thousand here, a hundred thousand there.
What ever happened to common sense?
Re:A for effort? (Score:1, Interesting)
just a point, if it's to be believed. One of the comments on the article is from someone who claims to be from the school who suggests all he actually did was install a keylogger and in fact knows virtually nothing about computers. It's quite possible that people less technologically capable in the news are blowing this up into a "master hacker" sort of idea.
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.
Re:Huh. (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:A for effort? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Public Schools? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A for effort? (Score:5, Interesting)
Reminds me of a story about my father when he was back in school.
He had a French test on verb conjugation coming up, so instead of studing he spent much time making a clever crib sheet mechanism into his watch, so that he could scroll through the crib sheet.
Anyway, while 'preparing', he kept rewriting the crib sheet smaller and smaller to fit more stuff on it. Ironically, when he went to take the test, he already knew the material from all his recopying that he didn't even need to cheat.
Re:Public Schools? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not sure about a figure but I suspect it would be significant because not only does the state have to do an accounting, but each district does as well.
I read a report a while back and I can't find it to link to now, but it said much of the same things. It went on to break down the actual effectiveness of every federal dollar which was astonishing low. less then 50 cents on the dollar. And of that, half had to be spent in specific ways which was tied to some other program which means if the state didn't fund the program and operate it a certain way with federal monies, it locked them out of certain other funds and opertunities. The report might have been part of one of those debates, I don't remember where I saw it.
My niece's school explained to us that if she ate breakfast at school instead of at home where it should be done at, that they would be eligible for some other funding related to class size and preschool opportunities for low income parents. They even sent applications home for the free lunch program and gave parents suggestions on how to qualify because a significant amount of federal funding was tied directly to that also. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't right in suggesting the removal of the department of education.
Re:In these post 9/11 times... (Score:3, Interesting)