Grow up (Score 1)

A university student at Carleton is learning that no good deed goes unpunished. After picking the lock into what was probably a not-so-secure professor's office, this guy took the time to write a 16-page paper on his methods and sent it to facilities management. Sounds like White Hat behavior to me. Yes, he should have asked permission before trying, but throwing the book at the guy and wrecking his life with criminal charges (which stick for a long time) seems a little excessive.

See how stupid this sounds when you apply the same logic elsewhere? Weak security is not an excuse for hacking a system, any more than having crappy locks is an excuse to break in somewhere to demonstrate to the owners that their physical security sucks. It's irrelevant whether he thought he was being helpful, it doesn't excuse his actions.

He might not have done any damage, or looked at anything he shouldn't have had access to, or planted backdoors into the system, but what proof do they have of this until they tear everything down and check it all for themselves?

The truth is, some university students are going to have the desire to hack something, and not all of them have the judgment to stay out of trouble.

So what? Not all of them have the judgement to not drink and drive, too - should we excuse them from DUI convinctions, as well? By the time you hit university, you're an adult, and it's time to act like one.