Teen Changes Wallpaper On Teacher's Computer; Gets Charged With A Felony By Sheriff's Office
from the CFAA:-Teen-Edition dept
Change a teacher's desktop wallpaper? That's a felony.The Pasco County Sheriff's Office has charged Domanik Green, an eighth-grader at Paul R. Smith Middle School, with an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access, a felony. Sheriff Chris Nocco said Thursday that Green logged onto the school's network on March 31 using an administrative-level password without permission. He then changed the background image on a teacher's computer to one showing two men kissing.Seemingly everyone at every level of government wants to talk about cybersecurity. Most of what's discussed is delivered in the breathless cadence of a lifetime paranoiac. (Won't someone think of the poor multimillion-dollar studios?!!?) This school is one level of government. So is the sheriff's office. Both felt the 14-year-old's actions were severe enough to warrant felony charges. Why? Because somebody hacked something. If you can even call it "hacking…"
Green had previously received a three-day suspension for accessing the system inappropriately. Other students also got in trouble at the time, he said. It was a well-known trick, Green said, because the password was easy to remember: a teacher's last name. He said he discovered it by watching the teacher type it in.The teen changed a computer's wallpaper and was able to do so because the most basic of security precautions weren't taken. Multiple students took advantage of this lax security to access computers with webcams so they could chat "face-to-face" while utilizing the school's network.
The school got all bent out of shape because some of the computers accessed contained encrypted test questions. It turned the student over to law enforcement because it deemed his "breach" of its system too "serious" to be handled by just a 10-day suspension. It had him arrested because of things he could have done, rather than the thing he actually did.
One of the computers Green, 14, accessed also had encrypted 2014 FCAT questions stored on it, though the sheriff and Pasco County School District officials said Green did not view or tamper with those files.And yet, Sheriff Chris Nocco is still looking to prosecute a 14-year-old for attempting to annoy one of his teachers. Here's the student's description of what he did.
"So I logged out of that computer [because that computer didn't have a webcam] and logged into a different one and I logged into a teacher's computer who I didn't like and tried putting inappropriate pictures onto his computer to annoy him," Green said.Here's Sheriff Nocco's statement:
"Even though some might say this is just a teenage prank, who knows what this teenager might have done," Nocco said.Well... you do know what "he might have done," Sheriff Nocco. And yet, your response to this situation is to hand out felony charges to a teen for something he might have done? Is that the way law enforcement is really supposed to work? [The FBI has issued the following statement: "That's the way it works for us. Almost exclusively."]
He told you exactly what he did and why he did it. Your own investigative efforts confirmed he never accessed the oh-so-untouchable FCAT questions. Incredibly, Sheriff Nocco wants to not only punish this student for something he might have done, but any other teens who might do stuff.
The sheriff said Green's case should be a warning to other students: "If information comes back to us and we get evidence (that other kids have done it), they're going to face the same consequences," Nocco said.Sheriff Nocco: I will arrest and charge teens with felonies for annoying educators and/or exposing their inability to make even the most minimal effort to keep their computers secure. If I lived in this county, I'd be very concerned that law enforcement officials are keen on the idea of arresting and prosecuting teens for stuff they didn't do (access test questions) or things they might have done (TBD as needed for maximum damage to teens' futures).
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Filed Under: arrest, chris nocco, computers, domanik green, hacking, pasco county, pasco county sheriff, students, teachers
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While we're at it...
After all, he might have done all that too.
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Re: While we're at it...
A Nobel Peace prize for hypothetical actions? That's getting old.
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Didn't Obama get one of those?
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not unreasonable at all...
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Hey Sheriff
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Re: Hey Sheriff
At least the Deputy is safe from you.
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Re: Hey Sheriff
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This is what kids do. Even 20 years ago when I was in school the first thing everyone did when sitting in front of locked computer was try and bypass the controls. It was a badge of honor for the person who broke them. Shoulder surfing for passwords was even then standard practice
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Other tricks I used was a DDOS that caused a BSOD on any machines in a list - we used that as soon as a teacher walked in the room to crash all the gaming machines.
I got into trouble a couple of times - but never serious.
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High School
Luckily our Dean was not an idiot, and after we explained, we didn't get into any trouble. These days I wonder if I would be charged with a felony.
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So how about jailing all police officers for life, as they might abuse their power to commit murder?
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"Even though some might say this is just a teenage prank, who knows what this teenager might have done," Nocco said.
Which sounds like the justification for each person who gets shot by cops. We dunno what they would have done so we went with the most extreme response. Cop logic.
The teenager would have done something stupid but pretty much harmless. But for making the powers that be look bad he must be punished to the insane limits of the legal system (and then some) to remind the little people to never ever color outside the lines or question their betters.
Zero tolerance, zero thought, zero intelligence...
Perhaps something this stupid should be used to examine how those "unforeseen consequences" from shitty laws play out and how to fix them before ruining a teenagers life.
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Even less
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Re: Even less
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If they just said what he did and nothing else, there would be public backlash. Why should a student face felony charges for a stupid prank? Throwing words like "hacking" and saying what he could have done adds an emotional layer that blinds people.
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He was lucky
Well, they only got him arrested because he could have accessed tests. Since the whole previous incident involved webcams, he should be glad he did not get booked for child pornography charges.
After all, he had access to a webcam and a child, and it likely can be proven that he had undressed the child (namely himself) on previous occasions.
These days, it is probably easiest to arrest people for being in the U.S.A., and if one takes a look at incarceration rates, it seems not too far from what is actually happening.
Maybe just put a fence around the entire country, not just the Mexican border, and put everybody on probation.
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That's a paddling...
https://youtu.be/pv_2a9Gira0
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Not entirely true - tremendous damage has been done to the reputation of the School District and the local police department.
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While you are at it
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Re: While you are at it
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teen gets charged with felony
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Re: teen gets charged with felony
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Re: Re: teen gets charged with felony
At 18, he can get it expunged...
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Re: Re: teen gets charged with felony
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Re: teen gets charged with felony
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Re: teen gets charged with felony
Not every bad action needs to be a crime, and not every crime needs to be a felony.
My guess is that the school was afraid of getting into huge trouble for letting a student access a computer with those standardized test questions on it (even though the student would have no reason to even want to look at those questions since their grades are unaffected by those tests - and in fact he did not even attempt to look at them even after he got access to the computer that had them) and decided to come down as hard as possible in the hopes that this would mollify the state.
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Re: Re: teen gets charged with felony
Like all authoritarian measures it is prone to failure, and this is dealt with by making the punishment more sever, and applicable to more minor infractions of the rules.
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Re: teen gets charged with felony
It should require a little bit more than being a disrespectful kid in order to get the kind of criminal record that can strip you of basic rights and prevent you from holding many professional and even non-professional jobs.
This nonsense is in the same territory as jaywalking or spitting on the sidewalk.
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Re: teen gets charged with felony
Let me ask why you don't think the teacher should be punished for potentially exposing students' personal information because of a weak password?
You know, since you're all hell bent on punishing the kid for what "could've happened..."
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Re: teen gets charged with felony
If you think this teen's actions rise to the level of "terrible" compared to the sort of things most teens do during a period of incomplete emotional growth, then you must be seriously lacking experience with actual teens.
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We're not a nation of thinkers.
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The school district needs to be investigated for probable FERPA violations by the DoE Family Policy Compliance Office. Because based on what's in the article, they clearly have problems controlling access to the computer systems containing student records.
Oh, and the head of their IT department needs to be fired for gross negligence - for allowing the system to be configured to use such a weak password in the first place. Because in Active Directory, at least, you have to specifically enable use of such crappy passwords.
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Great, the "but it's too hard excuse".
Anyone that works in IT should be able to tell you that.
This is especially funny since we are talking about SCHOOL where the "but it's too hard excuse" should get you laughed out the door.
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We only care about the victims, not the dangerously ignorant behaviors of those tasked with overseeing children 180 days of the year.
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I once snuck into a storage room at school without permission and unsupervised. While there, I could have looked at some test papers. I might also have poured petrol over the paperwork there and set the whole place on fire. So, even though I didn't do so much as steal a pencil or copy a test question, I should have been charged with arson and attempted murder, because that was possible.
I what kind of mental deficiencies you must have for this to sound reasonable just because you put "on a computer" after the initial action.
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As long as they're handing out idiotic punishments for non-crimes
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Re: As long as they're handing out idiotic punishments for non-crimes
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A better outcome would be for the sheriff to get the parents and kid in a room and give them the 'stern cop' treatment. He then collects the school staff and rips them up for being lazy, stupid, and wasting his time.
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I don't get it. Why is human motivation treated like Quantum Theory? The wave form has already collapsed, we know the outcome.
The kid wasn't interrupted while logging in, he completed his prank. We know what he might have done because he already did it.
What would you do if you had unfettered access to a school computer? Well, for this kid the answer was: put up a stupid wallpaper.
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Re: You can't expect a lowly LEO to understand...
It is very likely that he has only mastered the rudimentaries of "reading, riting, and rithmatic".
My sheep probably know more than he does about the complexities of computer technology. One can only hope that, if he has any children, they are somewhat more intelligent than he is.
I suppose it's time to stop being sarcastic at this little man and let it go. But stupidities like this wear thin against my charitable side.
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Re: Re: You can't expect a lowly LEO to understand...
Which stupidity, a kid being a kid, and which a teacher should know how to deal with, or authority figures turning a harmless prank into a felony.
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Re: Re: Re: You can't expect a lowly LEO to understand...
The kid has been a kid that could use some good self-discipline, but he isn't going to learn that from the examples of the various "authorities" he is now dealing with. They are acting more like little tantrum throwing children and are not providing any sort of decent adult example.
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Welcome to the Glorious Peoples Republic of Freedom!
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Is common-law no longer a thing?
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Re: Is common-law no longer a thing?
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So...Espionage then?
Unless there's some other anti-circumvention clause that might apply.
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Over the shoulder attacks are really just an old form of social engineering since you have to make the user feel comfortable to enter the password yet still be able to watch. Even easier is the "password under the keyboard/in the drawer".
Even "brute force" methods start with the common passwords (see the yearly list of common passwords)if you know the person then you start with birthdays, kids names, favorite sports teams etc.
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But the AC said that the password was brute-forced, not obtained through social engineering. It sounds like hacking to me.
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Four player deathmatch Grand Theft Auto (yes, the original top-down game) is all I remember from my typing class. I ended up getting the "Excellence in Computer Science" award all four years in high school, even after finally being caught (well, someone else got caught and told on me). I ended up helping them out with the computers after hours, no big deal.
Seriously, though, I've committed half the crimes students are getting criminal charges for in high school. I've hacked computers, wrote threatening messages, drew pictures of guns and knives, got in fights, and even proved teachers wrong. It sickens me that normal behavior has become such a huge deal.
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Blame the school administrators
The lack of two-factor authentication is what allowed this prank to take place.
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Re: Blame the school administrators
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In AD Group Policy Management:
Computer configuration -> Policies -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Account Policies/Password Policy -> Password must meet complexity requirements.
Turn the knob from Disabled back to Enabled (which is the default, anyway) and hit apply. And now Windows won't accept a password as simple as a person's last name.
Where should I send the consulting bill?
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It would - at the very least - partially insulate the school district from liability in this case. Which doesn't seem like a lot until your lazy teacher brings the federal government down on the school and the district.
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How did they become teachers if they can't remember anything more difficult then their name? Isn't college, and being a teacher requires college, supposed to prepare you for the hardships of life?
I didn't finish college but I made my way to Engineer. Even without college I can remember a complex passPHRASE. (Insert obligatory correct horse battery staple XKCD here). You should have moved to this method over all others.
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When password change day comes around, I do have a couple of days of fumbling because I need to look the passwords up in my password locker, but after that, my fingers just know what they are. I wouldn't be able to tell you what they are, because I don't remember, but my fingers know.
Muscle memory FTW!
In any case, remembering passwords isn't so hard even without using mnemonic tricks. Part of the problem is that people have had it drilled into their heads that they should never write down passwords. This is incorrect and harmful to security overall. What people should be told is how to keep passwords safe regardless of the medium they're stored in.
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Re: Re: Re: Blame the school administrators
Even if it is, AD complexity requirements aren't a silver bullet. Users that think their last name makes a good password are users who will write the complex password on a sticky and affix it to their monitor.
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"Passwords are effective in a school environment."
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Re: Blame the school administrators
No, that's not well known at all. What is well known is that many people don't want to be bothered with creating and using passwords correctly.
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The greatest scheme ever...
MUHAHAHHAhahahhh.... what do you mean that someone is already doing this?
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Fair is fair
We could then start a couple of watch lists
"People who should never be allowed to teach or work in contact with young people"
and
"People who must never be allowed to work in any way connected with law enforcement"
This could also be a shot in the arm for the American paper ink and pen manufacturing industries ...
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Homophobic Americans
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Re: Homophobic Americans
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the fix is
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Could have done ?!? Might have done?!?
If we as Americans were arrested on what we could have done or might have done, then everybody would be in jail. I hope this kid gets a good lawyer and sues the sh*t out of the school district and the sheriff for this misuse and abuse of justice and the law.
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Not unable. Unwilling.
If you follow policy then you are not held responsible for the outcome.
If you used discretion, even if it was in good faith (e.g. rational, compassionate or proportionate to the circumstances) then you are held responsible for the outcome, even if the outcome had nothing to do with the decision you made.
In this case, held responsible can be anything from being publicly censured to fired to sued directly by parents or even imprisoned.
So people follow policy because if they have to choose between some other guy's kid or their own ass, they're going to cover their own ass. Every. Single. Time.
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Re: Not unable. Unwilling.
In a lot of places and situations, even if you follow policy you *will* be held responsible for the outcome if a stupid policy backfires. Either way, you loose.
The ones *not* usually held to any meaningful level of accountability are the ones who make stupid policies in the first place. Sh*t still flows downhill.
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In a situation that goes south...
Policy may make for more situations in which things turn out badly (than discretion), but it's much more defensible when things do.
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Kids? We don't need no stinkin' kids. Throw 'em in a concentration camp where they belong.
What's next? Arresting toddlers in preschool and charging then with felony assault for throwing their sippy cups at another student? Wouldn't put it past them! Where does it end?
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he has the means, and it has happened in the past to other cops. Let's just use his own twisted logic on himself. Though no doubt he will exempt himself.
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The sheriff will exempt himself.
Obama believes the drone-strike program and the dragnet surveillance program are both safe while he wisely administrates.
But there were lame-duck bills standing by to curb presidential power if Romney were to get elected.
Ourselves, we are pure and good and incorruptible. It's the other people we have to watch out for.
Always the other people.
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Keeps me wondering
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Thought crimes
That, is about to end; Comrade Harper , our glorious evangelical [American GOP/tea party inspired] Leader, is about to pass legislative Bill C-51. C-51 will allow our version of the NSA, to 'interrupt' the activities/financing/travel/freedoms of anyone who 'MAY' commit a criminal/terrorist act. Presently, the threshold stands at 'likely to'
Amazing, when you realized that presently, peaceful environmental activists, and/or peaceful tar sands demonstrators, are tagged in the same category as domestic jihadi terrorists...
Once C-51 becomes law, our smugness will be wiped from our faces.
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Be sure to watch the documentary "The War On Kids"
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