Students Charged as Felony Hackers

This is exactly what happens when you have a group of public officials that have zero clue when it comes to computers defining policy...

13 high school students in the [...] state of Pennsylvania (the Kutztown 13 as they're known) were charged with third-degree felonies for misusing their school-issued Apple iBooks. Their heinous crime? They used the administrator password (which was taped on the back of the computers, no less) to install unauthorized software. Not BitTorrent, not Limewire, but iChat AV.

The administration is embarrassed that their security was bypassed so easily, or more to the point - that their super security turned out to be a password taped to the back of the machine. So what do they want to do now, make an example of some kids by sending them to jail for "hacking" the laptop. If I was in this community right now I would be organizing a campaign to recall the board for incompetence. The first rule of computer security is physical security. If you give the computer to a person that can take it home and do whatever they want to it - there is no security. All these "hacks" were pretty easy to accomplish, it would have been just as easy to remove the hard drive and read it from an unprotected computer - or lets say reinstall the operating system. What would the administration have done then if the OS was reinstalled clean, would that be worthy of jail time? See Full Stories:

• WFMZ-TV Online 2
• O'Grady's PowerPage - Your Mobile Technology Destination
• Berks-Mont Newspapers - Kutztown Area Patriot - 06/23/2005 - 13 teens face felonies

And of course - don't forget to visit (and donate) the web page put up by one of the family members of the group: Kutztown Administration vs. Kutztown Kids