Student Suspended For Taking Teacher's Challenge

CygnusTM writes: "The Seattle Times has a story about a high-school student who has been suspended for cracking a school computer after being challenged to do so by a teacher. The teacher says he wasn't serious. Raw deal." Aaron Lutes apparently got tripped up for what should have perhaps gotten him extra credit. The article notes: "The Lutes family and the district also acknowledge that Lutes' computer-science teacher, Giovanni Colombo, told students they'd get a reward from the software company if they cracked the security system and that Colombo wanted a 10% cut of that reward." Welcome to school, take a seat.

Re:Well...

Brutal analogy.

A closer one would be if this was a lock-smithing class and he was told he would get a reward if he could pick the front door lock to the school, went ahead and did it - after hours when the school door is actually locked - then got busted for letting them know that he did it. A student makes little distinction among the authority figures in his school, so ends up being perceived as more than a little deceptive, and of course, completely unfair.

The teacher obviously didn't believe any of his students could pull off the crack, and is too spineless to step up for his students when one of them gets into trouble as a direct result of his teaching. The example this teacher is presenting for his students is appalling. What ever happened to integrity?

Re:What do you expect, teacher's are stupid

You misspelled "possessive".
(Incorrect Grammar During Dictionary Flame, -3)

Utter his name...

Ten bucks says we've just seen the subject of JonKatz's next book

. . . and perhaps even a majority of the content between the covers.

--

You think you have it bad?

This guy got in trouble for something stupid. At least you have a teacher that will say something like this. Ours school seems to put down computers as much as it can. This year we got a new principal. This guy brings in teachers for token jobs, like history teachers, oh it just so happens the guy is a great basketball coach. Our principal apparently thinks very very little about any club except for the sports ones. Niether the computer club, nor the dramam club got any funding this year. Over the summer the new guy decided the school need some "cleaning". His idea of cleaning was throwing away over $20,000 worth of computer equiptment, the stuff we had been collecting for 3 years, that groups before me had been collecting since the school opened 10 years ago. He threw away _everything_, including an SGI Indy we had just gotten last year. He also cleaned out the drama department, which i'm not all that involved in, but he threw away all of thier props. The dramam department actually made money for the school, we used to have 6 plays a year, we're going to have 2 this year due to lack of funds and props. The drama club tried to raise money by selling candy, he put a stop to that saying it violated school policy. As if all this wasn't bad enough, we got ANOTHER gym, bringing us to a total of 3 gyms, basketball courts indoors and out. Ok, i'm done ranting

I had a somewhat similiar experience

My eigth grade year in middle school, I was in a computer class where we did stuff with Hypercard. I did the normal assignments and used the rest of the time to program stuff that was more interesting. Because I had figured out some simple ways to bypass the security, the computer lab teacher was deathly afraid of me.

Some kind of rumor got started that I was working on a disk that could be inserted into any of the school computers and would then bring the entire district network down. The first I heard of it was when I was summoned to talk to the principal (and all the administrators who had also gathered in the office specifically to discipline me). My computer priveleges were revoked for a month because they didn't want to "take chances".


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Re:I had a somewhat similiar experience

Because I had figured out some simple ways to bypass the security, the computer lab teacher was deathly afraid of me.

They should have been deathly afraid of their wimpy security instead.

Smells like conspiracy

The story says the kid was in trouble last year for bringing up innapropriate web sites. I'm trying to paint a MO here, just a theory..

A few years back Mr Columbo recomends site blocking software A. Kid breaks through software. Mr Columbo looks like an ass because some 14 year old kid comprimised his recomended security. Rather than be a professional about it and say "gee ok maybe I should ask this kid what we should use" He probably spent his time thinkin of ways to get back at him.

Over the course of the next year, Mr Columbo does his best to alienate this kid from the rest of the population. Prolly embarasses him in front of the class, continually tries to opress his free though.

Eventually the kid gets to a state where no matter what he tries, he knows Mr Columbo (god i love saying that) does not like him, he wants to do good in school so he's willing to do whatever it takes to get back in his good graces.

Mr Columbo makes a joke, telling the students to crack the file security system. Kid is so desperate to get on his good side he takes it literally, so he begins his work.

After comprimising system, kid goes back to Mr Columbo hoping he will acknowledge his work. Mr Columbo acknowledges it, then turns around and reports to the school "hey this kid is a 3v1l h4ck3r" to get the kid who made him look bad a year ago out of his hair.

The whole thing smells like entrapment if you ask me. Just like the corporate world except if a job is this bad, at least you can quit.

I'm willing to donate $100 bucks to this kids legal defense fund. It's not much, but its all I can offer right now. Let me know where to send the check, maybe the rest of us /..'rs should do the same. I had teachers fuck with me because I was too smart in school. It's nothing but peasant mentality on the part of the school district. Then again, I've been to washington, back in the 80's when I listened to the cure and dressed funny, I remember kids from my cousins HS in their farmer overalls asking me, "What are you some kind of faggot?" I guess things haven't changed much.

--Toq

Re:What do you expect, teacher's are stupid

That's quite a broad generalization there. I would have to disagree.

1. Some people teach because they have to (that's all they know, or they can't get a job better than that).
2. Some people teach because they love to.

Obviously, you're going to run into some teachers in the first category who hate their job, hate the students, and might even hate life too. If you combine that with frustrated students, you're only asking for trouble. Unfortunately there are all to many teachers who fall into this category, and they are probably responsible for where the public school system is today.

The teachers in the second category are really the ones that CAN make school how it should be: EDUCATIONAL. Still though, if you have a teacher in the second category and a student who makes that teacher's job a hassle to him/her, you're still asking for trouble. This should be solved with the teacher realizing that they're just kids, and you've got to brush most annoyances off.

So there you have it. Often times, yes, the teachers are the problem, but not all the time. You've got to remember that an adult interacting with a group of teens going through puberty (or kids at any age) has got to be incredibly hard no matter what you're doing...

So, give them some credit :)

Analysis and Comments

I think there is more to this then we're allowing. Many of us have raised Cain about the fact that we "leave our rights at the door" when we (as students) enter a public school. This is because the school takes on the role of the guardian from the moment the student walks in the door to the moment the student gets home. While certain legal parentheticals exist in this, thereby creating minor exceptions to this rule (corporal punishment for example) the vast majority of the schools authority derives from this basic assumption

The teacher is an employee of the school and the school system. His role is also that of a guardian. While there are examples of teachers smoking up with their students and numerous other breaches of protocol within nations schools, these are pretty universaly reguarded as a "Bad Thing"(tm).

All in all, the teacher does assume responcibility for the control he has over his students and for the instructions he gives to his students. High School students are (for the most part) under the age of 18. Consequently we do not expect them to have as sophisticated a sence of right and wrong as we expect from adults. Hence we try them as minors, not adults, in a court of law. The same applies here, the teacher does, to a certain degree, set down the moral standards. This is doubly so in a moral question as complicated as computer security (we all agree that murder is, no pun intended, pretty cut and dry?).

Lastly, we must take into account the legalities of the entire question. Did the student do any damage? No. Did the student access any files he was not supposed to read or in any way breach confidentiality? No. Is legal action being pressed against the student? Not as far as we know. All that's happened is the kid is suspended. In short, the school is enforcing its rules and regulations on a student. However, the student was told, by a representitive of the school, that his actions were within the scope of his course and were not condemned by the school.

How is this different than a store owner saying "Oh, you can have that, its free" and then calling the cops as soon as you walk out the door with it, accusing you of shoplifting?

Bottom line, the teacher screwed up. His actions were totaly unprofessional and demonstrate a real lack of forthought. He should be fired immediately. The student's suspension should be revoked without further delay, and the school should issue a formal appology, both to the student and the student body as a whole.

When the system values itself above the needs and rights of those it serves it is corrupt and earns the distrust and contempt of its masters.


Yea my spelling is wretched. Deal with it.

Re:Lame lame lame

'sounds to me like you may still have some learning to do.

Yes, it's great to be smug about how much money you're making, but did you ever stop to consider that you're really not worth that? I mean, "to society". Your inflated wage is a product of market dynamics, skilled computer workers are in short supply, so basically, if a person can turn on a computer, they can have a job. The supply of people who are skilled such as you (and I'm not disputing your skill/talent/intelligence - whatever), is much smaller than the demand.

This is the same exact reason why the RIAA can charge 20 fucking bucks for a CD that costs 50 cents to manufacture. (only they artificially constrain the supply). Perhaps the supply of skilled workers is somewhat artificially constrained (although I'm a vocal opponent of increasing H1-B visas). But in that analogy, that makes you no better as a net admin than n*sync is as musicians.

If the market changes, without a HS diploma, you are well and truly fucked. Supply does seem to be guaranteed to be short, even with the corporate lapdog congress increasing H1-B caps - but you don't know for a fact that *demand* is going to stay high.
There is a buttload of EXPERIENCED sysadmins out there, with decades of Unix experience, engineering degrees, etc. Right now, you're taking advantage of a system that permits a company to exist on a rediculously inflated market cap from a starry-eyed stock market. With lots of market cap, they can get lots of credit to buy fancy web servers, and hire high school dropouts for six figures. But as the economy slows, (debatable) and their market cap drops (that's indisputable, have you checked NASDAQ lately?), it's going to be harder for banks to justify credit to these companies, and as they default when they have no revenue to show for it, their payroll will be scrutinized.

In other words, to quote Vader "don't be too proud of this technological marvel you've created - the power to destroy a planet pales in comparison to the Force" (that is, market Force).

You are wise to "grab your share" before the market drops out - but make sure you arrange things so that you can KEEP it. And stop spending your nights at raves, because you just may find that someday, you're looking for the same job as a college graduate. Finish school and get that degree.

What has education become? A pile of shit. I do not dispute that. Don't you know that it has always been that? But at the top of that pile of shit is a piece of paper - which comes in handy when you need to wipe your ass.

www.adbusters.org

I dropped out of high-school about a year later (and I'm making more money now as a 17 year old Sysadmin than any of my teachers ever have or will.

hehe. Me too. 6 figure income without a high school diploma -- gotta love it. This really just underlines the utter unimportance of what education has become.

I may be wrong - but Id venture a guess that you dont work for any Fortune 500 companies. You cant get a job here at XZY Auto (big 3 US Autos) without at least an Associates Degree. Which I have - and it was like pulling teeth to have the HR monkeys approve the dept. head's choice.
Im not discounting that the two of you may be talented (as am I IMHO) - but having an education can only help. Entering the workforce at 17 might seem like a good idea when your 17 but I wish Id have stayed and finished my second degree instead of returning to school at 25.

Times are good right now - and trust me, when things get tight, and the economy is at a reasonable level, finding a job is going to get very tough when you dont have a high-school diploma. Not impossible, but tough.. excepting your 0.001% 31337 troops of super keyboard ninjas - If either of you are that good you have nothing to worry about. If that is not the case (as laws of averages would probably say) you might realize later that education is not utterly 'unimportant'. Im not suggesting that it is an absolute must - and nothing else is important; but it does have value and says alot about the type of person you are and not just about the knowledge and skills you may/may not possess.

Re:Note to Self

It got him fucked, not the same thing.

Ah, memories

...first day of computer class in 10th grade, sitting down at the green, glowing terminal, hooked up to the mainframe in the closet, given a password and encouraged to keep it secret. Then:

10 J=0

20 PRINT( CHR$( PEEK(J) ) )
30 J=J+1
40 GOTO 20
RUN

And there, after about fifteen seconds of barfing and beeping, every username and password in plaintext. Ah, cracking was much simpler then...
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Agreed.

I am a comp.sci teacher, and you just cannot cut today's students short. After a few months of intensive class, I had students sniffing my POP mail and cracking my SMB password with l0pht. Maybe not the most challenging tasks, but it just goes to prove that us teachers should "put our money where our mouth is".

As a teacher, if I dare my students, I should be able to live up to the consequences.

Education

Well, this now proves that most teachers do not know the full potential of their students, if this was a decent comp. teacher he would of noticed the tell tale signs of a hacker, you know, the backwards cap, baggy clothes, copy of 2600, skating around on rollerblades with a microcassete redbox, always talking about his date with acid burn.

What a joke.

Obviously, this is another example of a teacher feeling dumb when proven wrong. Even if the teacher was joking this implanted the idea in the students heads. I think if the student is to be reprimanded the teacher should be also. The student should get an automatic A for the semester and start teaching the course himself.

I had a cool teacher....

Teachers are getting some flames here, but cool teachers exist, you know!

There were two computer science teachers on my school, and the other teacher was responsible for installing anti-virus software. But he didn't do his work very well, so my teacher asked me and a friend if we could write something to get him moving. This was in the DOS days, I didn't come to learn UNIX before I went to university.

We wrote a small program that would increase the time between each time a keystroke would be registered. After a thousand keystrokes, the delay would be 50 ms, or something, and then go linearly with number of actual keystrokes. It was really fun watching people working with those computers.... :-)

Well, the next day, the fun was over. New virus-scanners were installed, and we removed the program. The other teacher never understood what had happened, ours thanked us.

Another time, our teacher managed to delete C:\ ("are you sure (Y/N)?" "Bloody hell, yes, of course, I'm sure", "whooooops"), and he was very happy tons of "unauthorized" software were installed on the computers to bring it back, because he didn't have any undelete utility himself.

Re:Lame lame lame

I did something similar, after advancing 2 grades I dropped out because running my own web programming firm wasn't considered a "real job" from our work experience teacher and I would have to be held back from graduating over .5 credits.

Unfortunately, most high school teachers and staff do not understand when they have bright kids who know what they want to do in life and do it. Often times they tend to punish them for it.

However gloating about your success in your career doesn't mean anything above them. And if you are talking about college teachers I know one who would put you to shame (He's in a special niche, played his cards right and owns a lotus and a ferrari.)

The ironic thing, in my school everytime I rooted the servers they just asked me how I did it so they could patch it and let me on my way -- I earned a lot of respect from the computer department in my high school because of my maturity through everything. Maybe you should look at the actions of you - an aid is nothing, they mean jack. You should take the responsibility to talk to admins about it, as they are the final word.

You were not authorized to gain that access from someone who was capable of authorizing you -- therefor you were punished accordingly. Don't bitch about how unfair the system is if you aren't being fair with it.

He'll get his reward

So he got suspended a few days. With all the press maybe he'll get a offered an after school computer job making more than his teachers. If he really has skill that is.

Re:Um... cracking is wrong, m'kay?

I think your point #2 has a high chance of being close to the truth, although a more sinister idea crossed my mind:

When ruling China, Mao once started a "let's speak out campaign" in which he EXPLICITLY invited people to write about what was wrong with the country, allegedly in order to improve the quality of government. Many people were elated at this "breath of freedom" and openly spoke what was on their minds. Mao then had the critics neatly identified, categorized, filed and then eliminated.

I saw this, IIRC, in a British Channel 4 documentary. Links would be appreciated.

Similar Story

Same thing happened to me. We used Hypercard to program little programs for our class assignments.

One day I did a little program that would just beep the computer a few times whenever you opened my hypercard stack. WELL, unknown to me, I coded the beep routine wrong, and it would beep the computer ~10,000 times.

As an added bonus to this blunder, I did it on Computer #1, the network server (unknown to me).

Yet to keep adding fun things on the pile, the code also beeped ANY hypercard stack that was oppened.

So to sum up the situation, by ACCIDENT, I created a hypercard stack that would Beep a computer 10,000 times whenever ANY hypercard stack on the network was opened. ALL BY MISTAKE !!

So the school called this a VIRUS, and i was givin 2 Weeks In School Suspencion, and I was almost Fined $2,000 for the 'Damages' I caused to the system.

God forbid a REAL hacker would ever break in. They wouldnt know WHAT to do.

Typical

Note that in the article they make the statement that he was suspended earlier for visiting inappropriate web sites

I'm guessing he went to 2600 or l0pht or something, although the vaguarities will lead most people to think of pRon. Amazing how carefully chosen phrases like hacker and inappropriate web sites can sway opinion. Great reporting.

The point is being badly missed here.

Okay. let's drop all the analogies about breaking into houses and jumping off cliffs. They all miss the point very badly here. There are only a few points that need to be considered here.

• The teacher was in class giving this challenge.
  
• The teacher was seen by the student as being a voice of authority and acting as a representative of the school.
  
• Other students in the class heard what the teacher had said and interpreted it in exactly the same way as the student in question.
  
  

Given these three points, the student should be walking away scot-free. Here's an appropriate analogy. A bank manager is giving a seminar about the security of his bank and during this seminar, he says that the alarm company servicing that bank is so confident in their security that it will reward anyone who can disable the alarm system from inside the bank. He further challenges the seminar attendees to do just that and says that he wants a cut of the reward if they can do it, but that he doubts anyone can. Then, when someone who attended the seminar actually does what he chellenged them to do, he says that he was just kidding about the whole thing

The problem in the story is that the representative of the bank is acting in an official capacity as a bank official, and it could be fairly and successfully argued that anything he ways about his bank is said with the full weight and authority of his position. The same principle works for the school teacher. When a teacher speaks, it is with the full authority of the school, and the school district. That's how they can at least attempt to keep discipline, set grades, and make standards for the grades they do give, set curricula, etc.

AFAIK, the teacher screwed the pooch here by making a challenge to his students without the authority to follow-through correctly. It's not the students' fault if the teacher overstepped his bounds. They had no way of knowing he wasn't serious, and that he could keep them immune from harm, as he seems to have implied in his challenge (i.e. you'll get a reward and extra credit. That's a reward, not a punishment.).

That's my take on it, anyhow.

-Jimmie

Lame lame lame

Something eerily similar happened to me once, actually. A teachers aide knew I was somewhat knowledgable about their network, and asked me if I thought a determined student could reak havoc on their systems. I told him I could demonstrate just the kind of havoc he could expect, and he asked me to show him. Using a silly NT4 bug that l0pht exploited and publicized, I gained rwx access on all the shares drives in the district (they were all using the same ancient domain controller). Long story short, it set off some serious flags with the admins, and although I didn't modify or destroy any data, I was brought in front of the ruling principal on charges of "Violating the student handbook's computer code and willfully gaining access to unauthorized resources". Even with the testimony of the teacher and teacher's aide, who confirmed I was performing a responsible security audit, I was convicted and sentanced to a two day term out-of-school. That was about the time I realized how much I hated the school system. I dropped out of high-school about a year later (and I'm making more money now as a 17 year old Sysadmin than any of my teachers ever have or will).

Teachers padding their egos

I had many a teacher in my day who would gurantee an A in their class if their students could solve some impossible problem. I think some teachers like to flaunt that they know something that a 16 yr old kid doesn't.

In a high school chemistry class my instructor promised an A to anyone in the class who could name another positive polyatomic ion other than ammonium (NH4+). One student raised his hand an said H3O+, which is technically correct (IAAChemist). This instructor told this kid he was an idiot and said if he raised his hand again the rest of the semester he would fail him.

Responsibility

Although it's hard to really ascertain what all is involved in this situation, I think that if the teacher did mention anything about hacking/cracking and even slightly gave the impression that he okay'd the action, then the student should be given a break. As a former teacher - grad and undergrad level in college, I know the influence that some teachers can have on their students. To even remotely consider abusing this trust is immoral. Add in high school where students are less sophisticated, and the responsibility that the teacher has to his/her students increases.

If the teacher said it as a joke, then he should have sent the students a clear indication that he was not serious. If he was serious, then he abused his trust and left one of his students to hang in the wind. The teacher, not the student, should be disciplined.

Re:Well...

Yes, because as we all know, breaking and entering a public building and disabling censorship software are morally equivalent acts. I say the little punk deserves the chair.
--
Bush's assertion: there ought to be limits to freedom

So when does the teacher get busted...

...for conspiracy to commit a crime, with a minor no less. Regardless of whether or not the teacher was kidding he was wrong. You can never garauntee that a 15 year old is mature enough to pock up the nuances of adult humor, or sarcasm.

My initial reaction was that the teacher was kidding and was just telling the students about the reward from the security company, but they claim that there never was a reward. So what would make a teacher lie like that?

And as far as the kid getting in trouble, at most maybe the school should have explained that it was a joke, this kid caused no damage, and in fact, immediately told the teacher when he had accomplished it.

Of courser the major problem is this: This is just another case of people ignoiring the real problem, the fact that security is pretty much a joke field. The attitude of "our lock is broken, and you have to pretend that it isn't, and if you don't play along we'll penalize you for pointing out our mistakes." Gotta love that.

Re:Entrapment?

The same principle applies though. The teacher was in a position of authority over the student. The teacher works for the local government (unless it was a private school). The teacher basically lied to a group of students and challenged them to do something. The students had no reason to believe that he didn't have the authority to let them do it. Then, when one does it, the teacher turns him in to the police for it. Sounds like entrapment to me.

If charged...

If the student is charged with the crime, should not the teacher be charged? What about the software company?

If the student committed a crime, then the teacher, and the software company incited the commission of a crime. If the teacher asked the students to commit a crime, could it not be conspiracy?

Now, on the other hand, since the teacher is an employee of the school the student was authorized by the school. The student may have believed that the teacher had the authority, maybe he is due the money from the school system.

An interesting can of worms.

Ahhh... high school...

This reminds me of the computer classes that I had in high school. My school had just gotten our first real computer lab and the teacher was new that year. She knew that I had quite a bit of experience with computers and made a deal that I wouldn't have to do the mindless busy work if I helped her keep things running smoothly.

I did. I ran cable. Upgraded some the the PowerMacs, installed software and helped the other students.

Toward the end of the year we had a "project" that was actually going to be used by a company. Like an advertisement or something. I told her that I disagreed with it, that it was wasting the other students education with this mindless corporate crap.

She got angry and since I hadn't technically done any of the assignments for that year I got an F.

This wasn't a stand out example either. There were quite a few people in other classes with other teachers that had similar occurences. This is precisesly why i dropped out and got my GED and went to college.

It doesn't matter whether he meant it or not

Elma School Supt. Bill Myhr, duly noting that the issue was confidential, did say that while some students took the challenge seriously, it wasn't intended that way.

It doesn't make a damn bit of difference if he didn't mean it. He said it and didn't say he was joking. Let's say that I'm a car salesman having a bad day. I'm talking to a customer about how the business is doing and I say that I'll give the next person to come in here 50% off on any car of their choice. Well let's say that the next person that comes in on the lot is that customer's wife and she says I want that car. I advertised that I would sell it for have off (even if I didn't buy a radio spot and tell the world). If I don't honor it, that's false advertising. It doesn't matter if I'm joking or not. Another exmaple: Let's say I'm sitting at a booth in a diner and I tell my buddy that I'm going to knock off President Recount. My buddy laughs cause he knows I'm joking and of course I am joking, but the person sitting in the booth behind me might not realize it. They call the cops, cops call the secret service, and bam I'm in jail. I said it. I can't prove I was joking, they can't prove I wasn't. Legal ass-raping is what it is. They teacher said it and he didn't explicitly say he was joking. You can't say he implied it. He didn't say it at all. Period. End of story.

--

Simple answer

It's all about accountability - a word unkown in this great country of America. The teacher, who is in a position of authority, should be help responsible for giving a student the right to do such a thing. The student was given the idea that because the teacher told him to do so, he had the right. That's not a wrong assumption...

Therefore, the teacher should be held responsible, the school should review its security, and people shoud ... GET SOME ACCOUNTABILITY!

It's all about the Karma Points, baybee...
Moderators: Read from the bottom up!

Ohmygawd! Its the BCSTFH!

You know, like the Bastard Operator From Hell, only teaching Computer Science. It sure sounds like something right out of an episode of the BOFH [virgin.net]...

back 5 years ago this happened to me...

During my sophomore year of HS i bypassed security on our school's Novell Netware network so I could install Dune II and play it from any location. A (former) friend was playing and got caught, instantly screaming "DEREK DID IT!" to our librarian.

I got 2 days suspension and computer privilages revoked for the rest of the year, and thought I was being sh1t on. (I was told I was being made an example off) If this had happened today, I'd have been arrested for the computer equivilent of sneaking a gameboy into class.

It just goes to show the power of ignorance and how easily fear can induce witchhunts.

It's our job to help educate people if we ever want this to change. It can be done, and we can help by easing fears by becoming part of the defense. I did exactly that as part of my "plea-bargian", and the following 2 years I was hired to help manage the ever-increasing district computer network.

Life imitates South Park

> "He gave them a challenge, probably thinking they couldn't do it and didn't think of the ramifications of what might happen if they did do it."

Reminds me of last weeks South Park. Kyle wanted to go to a concert, but was told he'd have to clean his room, shovel the driveway, and end Communism in Cuba. When Castro announced that a little boy in South Park convinced him to end communism, his parents said he still couldn't go to the concert.

I think the kid should not only have the suspension lifted, I also think the teacher should pay the kid the reward that he was promised.

I've seen this happen...

I've seen something very similar happen.

A good friend of mine (Hi Bryce! - who now, incidentally works for RedHat) was challenged by one of the sysadmins at my university to get root on their Sun server. This was in early 1992, when we just had Linux 0.14 too ;-)

I was there. I know the sysadmin made the challenge. This was also when the encrypted passwords were visible in /etc/passwd on Sun boxes, too. I watched him do the usual tricks (dictionary crack), then write a program, distributed on all the Solbourne workstations, that brute-forced it using the then new fast version of crypt().

When it became clear to the sysadmin (hi troot!) that the crack was about to succeed, he got his account locked and he was sent to see Big Boss in charge of the computing resources.

He did get his account back, but he was quite badly reprimanded for this - and it was very unfair too, since one of the sysadmins made the challenge.

The lesson is: if someone challenges you to hack their system, get it signed and in writing, and witnessed as well. If they do it word of mouth, you'll probably get shafted as soon as the admin realises his security is crap, and you're just about to defeat it...

Send Your Complaints To:

Elma High School Web Site:

http://www.eagles.edu/ [eagles.edu]

Elma High School
360-482-2822
360-482-3121
Fax: [phone]
1235 Elma-Monte Road
Elma, Washington 98541

further info from the website (may be old):

Superintendent Bill Myhr
Business Manager Michele Young
Director of Special Services Lois Parks
Director of Vocational Services Bob Pattee
Director of Athletics Steve Bridge
Maintenance Supervisor J.D. Boling
Payroll and Personnel Officer Kay Rotter
Administrative Assistant Mike Jones
Office Manager Doris Keeton

REMEMBER!

Use this Information for *good*, not evil!

;-)

fine the school district for carelessness

When someone breaks into a computer containing sensitive information, it makes a certain amount of sense to hand out punishment... to the idiots who left the computer unsecured.

Seriously - who is being irresponsible here ?

If I leave it at this, I'm bound to have some moron respond by saying "what - so you should be punished if someone breaks into your house.."

Here is a clue, I'll speak slowly for your benefit: c o m p u t e r s a n d h o u s e s a r e d i f f e r e n t

If it was absolutely impossible to catch thieves, and they could break into your house from the other side of the world, and then break into other people's houses once they had got into yours... there probably would be penalties fo
r not keeping your front door locked.

Re:Lame lame lame

Boy, you showed them. What better way to get your revenge then to quit school. Personally, I'd have made every effort to sit in the front of my classes, voulenteer to take messages to the office, and otherwise make my presence as known as possible. Considering that it seems you alluded to them driving you out of school, that would have make them nuts. When the system screws you, use the system to screw with the system. By dropping out, you eliminated yourself as a potential threat - whether real or not, and solved their problem. Rather than do that run for student council, and get the school computer policy revoked - or at least establish a students computing rights - one which conflicted with the previous said document. Get enough students to agree with you, a small bit of backing student legislation, and you can twist the arm of the administration. Even making the effort gets your point.

Oh, and not to nag you - but please, at least go back and get a GED. I know it sounds like a silly peice of paper but you'll thank yourself in 10 years. If you don't want to do college, that's fine, but sooner or later a high school diploma will haunt you big time.

As a further note, Bill Gates never finished college. Do you want to be a quitter like Bill Gates? :) (This is an attempt at humor / psychology)

Hyprocrisy

If a kid in school says anything along the lines of "I want to kill you" to either a nother student or a teacher, even if everyone understands they're joking, they can get in trouble. A lot of trouble.

But if a teacher cracks a joke, it's just a joke.

Good thing I got that straight.

good for him!

Now he can tell his future employer that he was the subject of a story on Slashdot, get a nice salary from a computer security firm, and wreak revenge on his oppressors in a Count-of-Monte-Cristo style. Sounds like he's got it made!