I feel sorry for kids these days. I really do. When I was in high school personal computers hadn't yet been invented. Computers in general were somewhat a novelty. A computer virus was a distant reality. But more importantly, by my standard, you could still try picking a girl's locks* in the backseat of a Chevy without concern for aids. They didn't "invent" that one until I was in college.
Yes, I have somewhat nostalgic feelings for my high-school days and the high computer crime that was carried out in those days - there were, as yet, no laws against it.
That's why stories like this one bother me a bit.
Highlighting the vulnerability of most computer networks, a 17-year-old student taking a networking course was arrested for hacking into his school's computers and erasing folders belonging to the junior class, New York State Police said Tuesday.
Triou was charged with one felony count of computer trespass and a misdemeanor count of computer tampering.
Schneier said he disagrees with the felony charge facing Triou, who was charged as an adult.
"The kid did the equivalent of spray-painting the school," he said. "It shouldn't be a felony to be young and stupid. That seems grossly unfair."
Back in 1973, I was at a high-school in Orange country. My future brother-in-law, the then, brother of my sweetie, mutually shared an interest in this thing they called a computer. He went to a different high-school. A somewhat, progressive school for it's time, it possessed an early IBM 360. There was something else "progressive" about this school. It boasted something called "flexible scheduling" Wherein, students showed up in the morning and went to Home class". There they were given their "schedule" for the day. No definite times for reading, writing and rithmatic - all changed on a daily basis. Conflicts in scheduling resulting in a situation called "park" an up front seventies word for "study hall". Where was all this "scheduling" done you ask? On the school's early model IBM 360.
I think you can all see where this is going yes?
The school actually encouraged students of "progressive" thought to "educate" themselves via the new educational resource that was this thing called computer - open to a whole new world of potential. The school provided us unfettered access to its electronic brain 24/7. God, those were the good ole days.
So what did we do with this opportunity? Originally we wrote crude computer games. Monopoly - like that. Eventually - and it didn't take long - we thought about emulating the school's scheduling program....Hmmm
Skip forward about a year - hey, this thing was pretty complex. We had, we thought, a pretty good replica. We switched it for the "real one" one night in February.
Remarkably, and to our budding young computer felon's credit, the fake lasted until the end of the school year whereupon our dupe was finally exposed via a periodic reveiew by the original authors of the software. (And some stupid bragging - it seemed that my brother in-law was seeing an awful lot of "park" these days...)
My name was kept out of the resulting - as we call now days - scandal. Still owe my brother-in-law for that one (brings back memories of "Sneakers" the movie). He was "suspended" for the summer session - which he had no intention of attending anyway and that was the end of it.
While we didn't do any "damage" save for my brother in-law's lack of "proper" education such as it was. The principal at the school as I recall, was pretty impressed with our stunt albeit in a kind of "under the table" sort of way.
Let's hope this kid doesn't get the death penalty.
*Yeah that's Pink Floyd for those that remember that sort of thing.
8:15:20 PM 
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