Criminal injustices for the young
Computer hacking is glamorised by films and TV but a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In recent cases, some authority figures have demonstrated just how little knowledge they have.
A fifteen year old student at Shenendowa Central School in New York State has been arrested and charged with computer felonies after hacking the school's computer network. At least, that is one point of view. The facts appear to be that two students with bad reputations were using the school's computers when they discovered that poor security procedures and server configuration errors meant their student passwords allowed them to browse areas which were supposed to be restricted to senior staff including the list of names and addresses of past and present employees. One of the students rather cheekily sent an email to the school principal with the list attached and a note which read "Look what I've found". It should be pointed out that he was logged in on the school network under his own name at the time he sent it.
You would think that the school would have been all too pleased to find out that their supposedly secure area was open to thousands of students, but no. According to a statement issued by the school, "within two hours" they had worked out who had sent the email and called the police. The youngster who sent the mail has been charged with computer trespass, unlawful possession of personal identification information and identity theft. He has been suspended from school and ordered to stand charges in family court in Saratoga County.
An equally stupid case in the UK has had a better outcome, thanks to a strong-minded parent. Lincolnshire police arrested a 16 year old suspected of hacking into the neighbour's WiFi router after the neighbour complained his connection was running a bit slow. How did the police arrive at this conclusion? It appears the neighbour called in a friend who knew a bit about computers, and this "expert" noticed that the computer of the lad next door was assigned an IP address on his router. Connecting to the wrong wireless router is remarkably easy to do, especially on a router which has not been set up properly, not password protected, and using all of the default factory settings. In fact, Windows will find a router and request an IP address all by itself. However, the expert concluded that not only had the boy done this deliberately and maliciously, but reckoned he'd also then "removed the encryption". What nonsense! I think this expert had gained his knowledge of hacking from watching CSI and Spooks.
In a sane and sensible world, the neighbour would have gone around to speak to the lad's father, but instead he called the police who arrived after 9pm on a Sunday evening, arrested the boy under the Computer Misuse Act, 1990, and questioned him for two hours. This suggests to me that the police were equally ill-informed about how a WiFi network works. At this point the police offered a formal caution which, if accepted, would give the boy a criminal record. The father quite rightly refused to accept this course of action. The accused was released on bail and ten days later received a letter from the police stating no further action would be taken.
23rd November 2008
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.