[sari]

An alleged computer breach by students at Col. Zadok Magruder High School in Montgomery County [Maryland] that could lead to criminal charges is a vivid reminder of their generation's ability to manipulate technology in ways that both alarm and astonish their elders.

New technology has raised the stakes in the ever-evolving cat-and-mouse game between teenagers and the adults who seek to protect and police them.

Montgomery school officials confirmed last week that they and police are investigating a "computer breach" at Magruder High, near Rockville, that could lead to criminal charges. They declined to provide specifics, but parents say they have heard that a few students might have been changing grades. The story was first reported by the Montgomery County Sentinel.

Last month, a 17-year-old student in Colorado was sentenced to one year of probation and 80 hours of community service after he was caught hacking into a school computer to change grades. More than a dozen similar incidents have taken place over the past year in New Jersey, Florida, California, Colorado and Massachusetts.

Read more here.

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Its bound to happen, with public schools being over crowded and having computer savvy kids in classes with computer illeteriate kids, it leads to boredom. Boredom for kids leads to trouble. I am not trying to say the kids are right but when all you have is time, it can lead to bad things.

This is why kids should be in vocational schools!

[jaxisland]

Its bound to happen, with public schools being over crowded and having computer savvy kids in classes with computer illeteriate kids, it leads to boredom. Boredom for kids leads to trouble. I am not trying to say the kids are right but when all you have is time, it can lead to bad things.

This is why kids should be in vocational schools!

[dsenette]

i never did anything like that in highschool

[ScHwErV]

Coming from someone who works IT in a school, I can tell you its far less about bored students and far more about teachers or administrators who do things like write username/password combinations on a sticky note on their corkboard.

Anyone who works in IT knows the types I am talking about. However its just much more dangerous in a school setting.

Also remember that the word "hacking" in these articles is being used by a journalist who likely does not understand the true meaning of what it is to "hack" or just wants to use the word for shock value. The kids in these articles may have done something so simple as to sit at a teacher station while the teacher was in the bathroom.

However, I do realize that things like this happen, but any network admin worth his wage should be able to prevent most real "hacking" attempts. My server that houses the teacher gradebooks is on the DMZ of my firewall so its firewalled not only from the outside world, but also from my internal network. Not only does this allow me more security, but also allows logs of everything that happens so that in the event of a problem, I have a way to figure out what happened.

[sari]

You just need to be school IT administrator of the world for life. Like a dictator.

[jaxisland]

You are right ScHwErV, it is about bad practices. I when I was in high school (1999-2001) that it would of been very easy to "hack". But I also know that kids are curious and will go clicking around and trying to do things that they are not suppose to do. Not all but some will. And without proper controls in place would allow kids to get through if they have any ability.

[dsenette]

my school thought they were safe because the interface with the main grading pc was all CLI (some proprietary gradotron system....based on unix somewhere in the mix) so they didn't get too fancy with security (plus the only other computers in the building hooked to the same network where in the "computer lab" for the ONE computer class they taught...which was typing and GWbasic)....the admin password was the schools name...for pretty much all the teachers...and the principles login (also the schools name for the password) had access to all grade books...took about 15 to 20 minutes of just fiddling around to get right into all the special places...changed a few grades...printed off some report cards and changed the grades back to where they were...then mailed the report cards to those kids' parents and waited for the proverbial poop to hit the fan...it was special

[sarahw]

I remember, not long after I started school, there was never problems like this. We used Microbee's that had orange monochrome screens and 5¼" floppies. When I started High school we used Apples and there was never a problem. Mind you, the internet wasn't around then. Now I feel old.

[warriorscot]

When i was in HS they didnt have that problem because they used paper the ultimate hack proof system.

[wannabe1]

When I was in High School, we didn't have any classrooms big enough to house a computer...

[dsenette]

When I was in High School, we didn't have any classrooms big enough to house a computer...

and the school marm didn't no nothin bout no fancy computer larnin neither

[sari]

I thought wannabe went to school in the era of one room schoolhouses - of course they had no classrooms. He used to dip the pigtails of the girl in front of him into the inkwell, and bring his lunch in a metal lunch pail.

[dsenette]

with his books tied together with a belt.....or were they stone tablets?

[frantique]

When i was in HS they didnt have that problem because they used paper the ultimate hack proof system.

Don't know about that .... when I was in High School they gave you the report on a single sheet of paper in an envelope addressed to your parents. You were supposed to hand it to them. My sister ran home with her "excellent" report (as always!) and I could hear my mother coming to get mine .... so I opened the envelope and ate the report and hid the envelope down the front of my school dress and told her I didn't get one. At least it gave me a couple of days reprive.

[cuzant]

my school is pretty tight with it you cant even right click anything