Thursday, August 11, 2005

Student hacks criminal?

They're being called the "Dirty Baker's Dozen" in the UK and "the Kutztown 13" in the US, and their story has been picked up by more than 100 media outlets in the US, the UK, Canada, and China. "The trouble began last fall after the district issued some 600 Apple iBook laptops to every student at the [Kutztown, Pa.] high school about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia," the Associated Press reports. The Register in the UK continues the story with tongue in cheek: "The administrators had not … reckoned on the sheer determination and Machiavellian cunning of the students. They quickly found the admin password allowing unrestricted internet access - not by a keystroke logging black op or extracting it from the IT manager at the point of a gun - but rather because it was taped to the back of every machine." The students downloaded iChat and proceeded to chat. "At least one student viewed pornography. Some students also turned off the remote [student-]monitoring function … using it to view administrators' own computer screens." The students have been charged with computer trespass, a felony in Pennsylvania, and a hearing in juvenile court has been set for August 24. Possible sanctions they face include juvenile detention, probation, and community service. An uncle of one of the boys set up CutUsABreak.org with their side of the story. The site, which reportedly has received tens of thousands of visitors, asks of school administrators: "Make it policy that there is a back up plan other than felony charges for the kids who can not handle the temptations that laptops bring into their lives."

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