Student Hacks to an A

[ck3k]

I found this in my endless searching of the net for the odd and insane. this story is unique because it potrays a hacker using his skill to find a hole and then help solve the problem. A student used his "hacking skill" to change his grades and use this as a part of a paper he was writting. remember for educational purposes only.....:D

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...ey/4754902.htm

[highwizard]

Re: Student Hacks to an A

Originally posted by ck3k
I found this in my endless searching of the net for the odd and insane. this story is unique because it potrays a hacker using his skill to find a hole and then help solve the problem. A student used his "hacking" skill to change his grades and use this as a part of a paper he was writting. remember for educational purposes only.....:D

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...ey/4754902.htm

He ran a program, he cracked a password. He did a good job in finding out the security flaw. However, to write a news articel about it might be going over board. But, I don't dictate what the media does.

Atleast he didn't get suspended for doing that. If he wasn't a 4.0 student he probably would have been suspended even if he did report it. Atleast the Adminstration was cool.

[blackwave]

Re: Re: Student Hacks to an A

Originally posted by highwizard
He ran a program, he cracked a password. He did a good job in finding out the security flaw. However, to write a news articel about it might be going over board.

Most interesting to see something semi-positive coming from the media... though, the overall content, and the speculation of "the hack" were pretty thin for a news article...

here is Reid's interesting quote:

quoted by Reid Ellison "I couldn't do what most people would want to do when they hack into the school's computer," Reid said. "So I thought it would be funny to do the opposite."

... and of course the password... (though no program really would have been necessary, as seen below )

It took three hacking programs less than a second -- 200 milliseconds to be exact -- to find the password to the school's computer, Reid said. It was the school secretary's name: Silvia.

here are some pictures from other articles listed below...





http://bigblog.com/computer_security.html

http://www.nsag.net/news_pages00000xx.htm

http://www.securitynews.net/modules....ws&new_topic=8

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/interne...ack/index.html

... I could only imagine he already has some type of movie rights and an agent ...

[TwinVega]

There are hundreds of these incidents all over the country, this time it just happened that the kid wasn't able to improve his grade anymore so they didn't have him arrested. I think the school administrations are way too paranoid about their network being attacked, but instead of fixing flaws, they arrest students for changing a file that was very easily accessed. It's like getting somebody in trouble for changing your grade on a shared drive.

[blackwave]

yeah it reminds me of a memo going around that any type of management staff shouldn't be putting their reports on shared drives... of course after being found and spread among everyone... lameasses did not realize that if you share your root drive, you inherently share whatever directories are in it, whether or not you specify if the subdirectories are shared... anyway that ftard is no longer anyone with power...

[highwizard]

Originally posted by TwinVega
There are hundreds of these incidents all over the country, this time it just happened that the kid wasn't able to improve his grade anymore so they didn't have him arrested. I think the school administrations are way too paranoid about their network being attacked, but instead of fixing flaws, they arrest students for changing a file that was very easily accessed. It's like getting somebody in trouble for changing your grade on a shared drive.

Oddly enough, many of the schools around the country get Free Tech Support by having their "bright" students help administer the networks. They let them deal with the issues of securing the networks and such, because the faculty is aware of their lack of knowledge. Though, some schools still are too paranoid to allow even that.

[jetforce4004]

my school is paranoid with computers. they say if you find a flaw you have to report it, you cant look for flaws or you get in trouble, if you tell somone else then the administration you get in trouble. people are too scared of getting in trouble to mension anything. Within 1 week at the school i had found ways to get to every network from their securist computer and that was because i only got about 30 seconds a day or less to search because of the teachers. (word macros are really fun on their computers). the teachers say their passwords outloud across the class room and their usernames.

[blackwave]

it is always sad to hear that people that wish to learn are always hindered by stupidity...

[astcell]

Way back when I went to high school everything was done with paper and pencils. Changing a grade was way easier then, but that grade book was kept VERY secure. Today with computers the teachers just assume that security is there automatically, and that is their fail point. Just because it is hard for them to access the database of grades does not mean it is hard for anyone else.

[highwizard]

Originally posted by astcell
Way back when I went to high school everything was done with paper and pencils. Changing a grade was way easier then, but that grade book was kept VERY secure. Today with computers the teachers just assume that security is there automatically, and that is their fail point. Just because it is hard for them to access the database of grades does not mean it is hard for anyone else.

We all knew where Sister B, kept her grade book.

[blackwave]

Originally posted by highwizard
We all knew where Sister B, kept her grade book.

ack another victim! :D

[TwinVega]

Originally posted by highwizard
Oddly enough, many of the schools around the country get Free Tech Support by having their "bright" students help administer the networks. They let them deal with the issues of securing the networks and such, because the faculty is aware of their lack of knowledge. Though, some schools still are too paranoid to allow even that.

Haha, oddly enough...I was one of those bright students till about a month ago, when they figured out somebody was trying to brute force some e-mail accounts. Then I all of a sudden went from Vega:Trusted Helper, to Vega:Menace to Society and possible security threat. It's funny how fast they can turn on you when you have been helping them for years.

[ck3k]

I also was a student that was sent out to repair teachers hardware and other problems, and much like Vega was turned on by people that I had been helping for a long time. Teachers are some of the worst people to help, they are not used to students telling them how things work. Its all good though, I was never paid for what I did, so I lost nothing. Another joke at are school is that the techs get paided large salarys while I doing as much or if not more work get paid by thank yous and the recent hacker witch hunt at my high school.

[highwizard]

Originally posted by ck3k
Another joke at are school is that the techs get paided large salarys while I doing as much or if not more work get paid by thank yous and the recent hacker witch hunt at my high school.

I am not trying to be a dick, but sometime I get in a Grammar Maven mood. It's "our" not "are".

[ck3k]

I find my spelling quite ammusing at times, my friend got me the "I am a Porgrammar" shirt, I work with computers not words.:D