Advice Badly Needed!

I know that this site isnt a helpline for persoanl problems or anything, but my parents found out that i have some hacking tutorials, and i also had some group newsletters from BOING!!(thats the title) and although they contained good material, they also contained some weird"inappropiate" stuff.While i totally agree with them that some of the stuff is messed up, most of it isnt. They said they were going to bring the stuff to the school for the principal to look at, and i think they are going to ban me from computers(which is my only internet connection on school days, and also considering computers are my life and passion) and i could possibly get suspended, maybe even expelled and i really dont want that at all. like i said im sorry for posting this topic, but i know some of u guys would had to have gotten busted for the same thing so PLEASE give me some input! thanks ALOT! :(

If you got these materials from a school network, chances are you were not allowed to get those in the first place if it has to do anything remotely destructive, defamatory, or not within the school policy. It means they do not allow you to look at or download zines or view information that have virii code, hacking information, warez ... you get the picture.

The best thing you can do is explain you are trying to study computer security and was not meant to be harmful, but that may not be of help especially if they have you accessing this stuff on a regular basis. However, this varies from school to school, policy to policy.

I am sorry you are getting in trouble, but a good rule of thumb is not to download or view off-color stuff on school networks....

Hope this helps

albn

as a modification of my original post, i would like to say thank you to all of you who DIDNT neg me or flame me, it was a nice surprise, because 10 minutes ago, i had 2 antipoints, now i somehow have 38. it was a big encouragement to me even though nobody responded to my post, through those points i know (or at least feel) that other people are sympathizing with me, and again thank you!

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i could possibly get suspended, maybe even expelled and i really dont want that at all

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you could get expelled for some hacking tutes found in your room? sounds to me like the "wierd innappropriate stuff" is more the ....erm.... issue here. :)

thanks alittlebitnumb, they were off the internet, which was accessed from the network, also the bad thing is is im a TA to one of the network administrators, and this wont add positively to a good reputation considering most people dont understand the hacker/cracker difference!

it wasnt really porno or anything, but the newsletter contained a log from one of the groups conversations, and what they were talking about from a parental and principal perspective wasnt appropiate.

Well, if you are a network admin and TA, you are still learning or at least gaining knowledge on this very vast and complex subject. Yes, you are right. Many people see "virus" or "hacker" and assume right away you must be some evil person. Like I said, it's gonna take some serious explaining, especially if your school administrators are not into this sort of thing.

Also, it tips badly in your favor when you break the rules too. What applies to regular users should apply to admins. Another rule of thumb is if you are an admin, you set a good example to others.

Again, I hope all goes well.

albn

Reading something and doing something are very different. If your parents are that unnerved by what you're reading, I suggest you never bring home Mein Kampf, American Psycho, or The Black Donnellys(sp). Are you reading the tutorials to learn how to use hacking techniques or ways to defeat them? I'd tell my parents that I'm interested in computer security, and possibly the best way to know its strengths is to read from the people who know its weaknesses. ie: FBI Profilers don't learn their techniques by avoiding their subjects.

As for this "Boing" stuff. What the hell is that? If it's porno, yer on yer own.

Hey, if you program try saying that you were gathering info for an encryption prog. or something simular such as a chat prog. You need to know how they crak in order to make your things secure. Purely research. Might be tough to pull off but hey, it's something credible at least.

i don't see how you could get suspended from school from something you have in your home. also, the fact that you have admin rights makes the explaination easy. you need to know how people break into systems in order to protect yourself, so it's reall just research. thats like saying a police officer needs to know what pot smells like if he wants to catch people who smoke it.

and from now on, i would keep your hacking tuts encrypted or locked up :)

I think your parents are just trying to scare you.I know my father always say he's going to talk to the principal when I cut out. The very next day he signs me a sick note. So sit down and explain to them why you keep this files in your computer and chances are they will understand a little better.

sorry guys for not responding earlier, during vacations i can get on the net almost everyday except friday and sunday, but on school days only on saturdays(at least to AO) as an answwer to evil moo, i really cant learn how to program very much, cause my parents limited my home comp time to an hour,or else i would learn. to firestarter Boing was an old hack group that mixed their newsletters w/funny stories and tutorials NO PORN. and to the person who asked what i was learn this stuff for: the answer is both to learn how to hack and how to protect. the reason im interested in computers at all is because of the challenge and the love to learn about them. hacking to me isnt going and destroying files, or vandalism, when i hack its for experience and the challenge, its also to learn; thats also the reason i like helping my school out.

Simple solution, explain the situation to your Net. Admin. If there's anyone who would understand, it's going to be him/her. From someone who deals with school administrators on a daily basis. If you try to explain it to your principal, you'll just freak them out, or they won't believe you. If the Net. Admin backs you, more then likely it'll just be brushed off. (Most school admins don't know **** about computers, so when net. admins start talking, they glaze over, and they just want all the scary words to end.)

Convince the Net Admin, and you've won half the battle.

This is really f***** up, and very unfair to you. I agree with what the others here have replied so far. In addition try explaining to your parents why you have these things at home. Tell them that you are very interested in computers and computer security and everything else related to that. Explain to them what a "hacker" actually is. A hacker is not someone who just breaks into systems and does evil, although thats what most of the mass media and peeps think. Explain that the hacking stuff found at your home has not harmful intentions. Try explaining to your parents and your admin the following:

You are very interested in computer security. You want to learn all about system administration meaning that you have to explore and study everything you can get your hands on realated to computer security. Tell them that a hacker is not an evil person, but someone who....uhm, hold on.


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There is a community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards that traces its history back through decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and the earliest ARPAnet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term `hacker'. Hackers built the Internet. Hackers made the Unix operating system what it is today. Hackers run Usenet. Hackers make the World Wide Web work.

The hacker mind-set is not confined to this software-hacker culture. There are people who apply the hacker attitude to other things, like electronics or music -- actually, you can find it at the highest levels of any science or art. Software hackers recognize these kindred spirits elsewhere and may call them "hackers" too -- and some claim that the hacker nature is really independent of the particular medium the hacker works in.

There is another group of people who loudly call themselves hackers, but aren't. These are people (mainly adolescent males) who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people `crackers' and want nothing to do with them. Real hackers mostly think crackers are lazy, irresponsible, and not very bright, and object that being able to break security doesn't make you a hacker any more than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word `hacker' to describe crackers; this irritates real hackers no end.

The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them.

This quote is taken from "Copyright © 2001 Eric S. Raymond" and the credit for this definition should respectfully go to Eric.

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Try explaining to them that anything related to the deep depths of computers, networking and security can be in a way called hacking. In order for you to learn computers and computer security its essential that you also once in a while read stuff related to hackers or hacking.

Make those differences very clear to your parents. Tell them that you love computers and want to learn everything about them.

I wish you the best of luck.

research would be the perfect answer .

we all know that useing such materials for study and research is ligal.