Asking People To Hit Reload Is A Felony?
from the seems-a-bit-extreme dept
Well, here's yet another story about non-tech savvy folks seriously overreacting to a technology issue. Slashdot points us to the story of a high school kid who set up a blog on his high school's server, and jokingly told visitors to hit "F5" (reload) to see if it would crash the server. It did slow down the server, and the school went to the police who have somehow decided that asking people to reload a webpage repeatedly is a felony. The city prosecutor gets all of the amusing quotes in this story: "Michael said it was a joke. We showed him how we deal with this kind of joke." By charging him with felony charges? Later on in the article, the same guy admits that they had to charge some students with misdemeanors last year for breaking into school computers and changing their grades. Who knew that breaking into a computer and changing grades was a lesser crime than telling people to hit F5? Still, the best quote is: "This new technology has created a whole wave of crimes, and we're just trying to find ways to solve them." Perhaps before "solving" them you should take a step back and figure out if there's really a problem. If the school had set their system up to handle more traffic would there be any crime at all? Still, this could raise some questions about what's the dividing line between asking a lot of people to visit a site and setting off a denial of service attack? However, if you had to draw the line somewhere, it would probably be well beyond asking people to reload the website. As some of the commenters on Slashdot point out, just having Slashdot link to the school's website probably is more likely to slow down the server than whatever this kid did. In other words, by making news with this felony charge, the school is more likely to have their servers go down. So who will they arrest for that mistake?
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dos is dos
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Re: dos is dos
Maybe they should just charge all the people that did it with the same as co-conspirators
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No, a real felony would be if you...
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Re: dos is dos
Of course, in this case, I think anyone actually and seriously trying to crash the server might get... 3 days suspension, tops. Maybe a charge for Criminal Mischief at most.
BTW, this is also a reformat of an old joke. The old joke can be written on a dollar bill or on a piece of paper:
"How do you keep (insert target group, like blonds here) busy for hours? Look on other side for answer."
You write the same thing on the other side, and then hand the piece of paper to a blond (preferably a friend who knows you are joking). ;) Didn't read the actual page, but I could see F5 used in a similar joke.
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Wouldn't it just come out of browser cache?
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Re: Wouldn't it just come out of browser cache?
The F5 DOS was only really a serious action 7 years ago or before. Today, most admins are smart enough to see their bandwidth rising because of a few people, and banning their subnet. This is exactly how an automated DDOS is stopped (though usually by firewall or automated server scripts, not directly be the admin themselves).
What's really funny about this story is the incompetence of this school's admin. Think about this. He had to actually report this as a crime, and investigate 3 or 4 students reloading a page. I know us admins are thought of as geeks (proudly, I might add, haha) who do nothing but spend our lives in front of computers. But this guy really does have no life, and he is seriously lacking in skill. My guess? The server admin is the principle of the school, who does this in his spare time. This was not a real admin, and definately not a real geek.
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Lake High
lake.stark.k12.oh.us/hs
although for some reason, it won't load...i wonder why?
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why?
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Re: Lake High
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Re: Lake High
The Lake High School you linked to is in a completely different part of Ohio than the one in the story.
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Re: Lake High
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Why is this a problem?
Is this server JUST a web server? Or does it run other critial applicaitons that contribute to the day-to-day operations of the school? If it is just a web server, then no harm done.
If it is more important than that, then it is more the admins fault.
Finally: the schools ought to be thankful that a weakness in their system had been found out. And if they would have kept their mouths shut, they could have avoided the streisand effect, and fixed the problem. But alas, they had to exercise their foolish zero tollerance attitude and make a big 'ol stinky fart out of this mess, and now THEY are in much deeper, uh, doodoo.
I hate it when stinky 'ol farts leave a mess. But that is what you get when you don't take care of the poo in good time.
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Re: dos is dos
Charging this boy with a FELONY is reckless, and irresponsible, and illustrates incredible ignorance by the school, the police, and the prosecutor. Furthermore, the actions taken and comments made by the prosecutor demonstrate his own brazen arrogance, poor judgement, and malice. If convicted of the charge this boy, who is just beginning his life, will carry the burden of being a "convicted felon" until he dies or is absolved by a higher court. Here's a sample of the collateral consequences his conviction would bring:
Even if this boy is exonerated and the charges are dropped or dismissed, he will have been put through a process reserved for those accused of the highest order of crime defined by law. The prosecutor's rash decision to file felony charges without first consulting with a technology expert is reprehensible. Regardless of the outcome, it is clear he lacks the sound judgement and integrity that is necessary to competently represent the People of his municipality. He should resign from or be removed from his post, and be replaced by someone who will represent the People with the integrity and consideration they deserve.
Respectfully,
Samuel Walter
Network Engineer / Security Analyst