Student accused of trying to crash school's computer system

I read this earlier, I think it is just a little extreme, all he did was create a website... "When enough users logged on and hit the F5 button, it overloaded the school's system.".... I mean isn't this the case with any webpage. Kinda funny nevertheless (I think thats a word).

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Student accused of trying to crash school's computer system

Created: 1/5/2006 5:12:50 PM
Updated:1/6/2006 4:41:18 PM

UNIONTOWN -- A Stark County high school senior has been arrested and charged for allegedly trying to crash his school's computer system.

Police say the student created a website, which connected to the school's system.

When enough users logged on and hit the F5 button, it overloaded the school's system.

But, Lake High School caught-on before the system crashed. Its computers started slowing down.

"It's a crime and it is important we take this seriously ... especially for school officials ... it could have done a tremendous amount of damage," said Canton City Prosecutor Frank Fronchione.

Stone is charged with a felony and could face jail time.

But, prosecutors say community service is more likely and disciplinary action from the school.

© 2005


WKYC-TV

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Source: http://www.wkyc.com/akron/akron_arti...?storyid=45721

He-heh, maybe it was homework? Hope he wasn't hoping for extra credit on this one...

Looking at the article it looks like the kid had an external website that the school had to trace the owner of. That would have probably required the police to get involved in order to get the info and shut it down. It was essentialy a denial of service attack on his school. I would argue that jailing him for this would be harsh, but something needs to be done. I would vote for an official caution and punishment from the school.

Looks like a clear case of a DoS attack. I mean really:

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When enough users logged on and hit the F5 button, it overloaded the school's system.

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Obvious complicity.................hey, how dynamic is a school network likely to be? yet all these bozos signed on and kept hitting the refresh key?

Not only did he set it up, he orchestrated it as well :eek:

:)

That story made the front page of digg.com. The schools website hasnt been seen since.

LOL, I bet having the story on digg.com did a hell of alot more damage than the kid did

Maybe that was the kid's plan all along....

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Originally posted here by nihil

Not only did he set it up, he orchestrated it as well :eek:

:)

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Suggest cut off digits, joint by joint, 3x10 = only 30 mini chops :D yummy, yummy for starters(only hands for the moment). I always get a bit depressed at the start of a new year

Maybe he figured that prison chow was better than his school dinners?

Tinned peaches......................yeuk! :chuck:

http://lake.stark.k12.oh.us/adminoff...teria/menu.php

:cool: :D

hey

How was the kid able to relate his website to the school's server? This is possible only by two ways:

1. Hacking
2. He saw the details written over somewhere

The second case is unlikely to happen. This leaves us to just one possibility that the kid got the details thru some illegal means. And then generated a Dos attack as said by "nihil". This comes under the cyber crime and must face the jail. However, he may be spared considering his age.

The motive behind it can b anything. It can be a revenge if the kid has failed in some exams. Or it can b someother person also tryin to teach the kid the whole thing(kinda using the kid as weapon), who turned back when his plan failed!!

codenamevirus

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How was the kid able to relate his website to the school's server?

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Just click on the link in my post above yours and it will take you straight there ;)

I don't think the attack was very technical or subtle. Set up website, post link to school site, get all your friends to login to your website and click the link.

I suppose he thought that it would act like a proxy?...................silly boy! :D

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Have a little word with his mommy

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Be glad to have a little word with his mommy just before they through his a$$ in with Bubba (his new mommy).

Come on now, he knew exactly what he was doing! Do the crime do the time. It's that simple.

or one thing teachers a just morons and dont know what there talking about or doing. im just used to that over here.

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or one thing teachers a just morons and dont know what there talking about or doing

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The school don't seem to have made any comment, so I doubt if the teaching staff were involved. With a DoS attack it would be the admins and the cops.

:)

the real question is not whether or not its a crime to DoS the school or whether it was destructive, but whether or not he knowingly commited the crime. I see this in mock trial cases all the time. The prosecution needs to lay a foundation that the student knew what he was doing (probably, if he could set up a web site he cant be THAT unintelligent) and the end result/affects.

I don't necessarily want to see his nads cut off. However alot of the problems we are having almost everywhere are directly related to discipline. Whether that is in the civil, school, home, etc., environment. If we don't start holding folks accountable as is appropriate for the offenses, then we better find a cave to live in, the guano will be hitting the mixmaster!

cheers

personally i think this sort of thing should be handled by the school officials. a kid throwing a water baloon in the computer lab could may more dmg then what this kid tried to do.

If he would have only thrown a water balloon in class they could have. He used commercial telephone lines, etc., to commit the offense. It is way beyond the school's authority. He jumped way over them. We're talking, FCC, Government etc.,

cheers

Plus if you don't send a message, so that others take heed, it becomes open season on the schools site.... :rolleyes:

This kid obviously knew what he was attempting to do, and I have to assume (seeing as how he is in high school) that he was smart enough to know right from wrong????

Shows how good school computers are.

al1~

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Shows how good school computers are.

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That comment is irrelevant. This is a public site that anyone can find and access. If you are open to the public you are very vulnerable to a DoS attack.

Your only real defence is to have sufficient resource to handle the traffic. Even Microsoft's update servers creak when a new security patch comes out.

You don't spend masses of money on that kind of set-up, you just take the site down and deploy the forces of darkness to deal with the little toe-rags causing the problem. That is exactly what they have done here.

;)

I am not seeing this at all .........

The kid set up a web page, set up a link to a school page, then told people to hit the refresh button once there?

Is that correct?

I don't think the news properly reported this, nor did the authorities properly handle this.

If this thinking is correct:

If the Democratic Chair advised all constituents view whitehouse.gov at a certain time of day, on a certain day of the month they would be guilty of a crime?

What about all the people who participated? Wouldn't they be equally guilty, if not more so?

And what about nihil ?????

He posted a link to their site, which will be viewed by thousands, possibly clicked on, causing even more stress on the school systems.

And JM for hosting the site that allowed nihil to post the link publically?

This was not a bot, not something that intruded on other systems to perform a DOS attack, it was a link to a site and a suggestion that they refresh.

Socially Engineered Ddos ? Probably.

But what specific crime did this person commit? What school regulation did they violate?

Playing on the stupidity of others?

< insert comment here >

Please correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know it is not a crime to be stupid!

The poll is irrelevant as it asks opinions based solely on the news accounts and not on actual facts or laws or regulations which pertain to the incident.

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glad none of my old actions made the news.. Our school was lax on security.. needless to say, it was fun and easy to control the cmos, on every machine in the "library." None would boot for weeks, reformatting ensued, and er0k went scott free, as I volunteered to "help" the admins. idiots. I didn't do anything that a half-assed retard couldn't have done, but, in relation to this article, i feel for the kid. I used to dick around with the school's server constantly, running bzflag servers off of it, etc, and putting up posters around the school to get people to logon, again needless to say, I ran into a bunch of trouble. I think its bullshit that they are prosecuting the kid. OMG computers are crashed for a few hours! Kick the ****er out of school, but jesus christ send him to prison? I doubt very seriously they will.. Anyway im drunk and ranting and hate cops.

IKnowNot

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If the Democratic Chair advised all constituents view whitehouse.gov at a certain time of day, on a certain day of the month they would be guilty of a crime?

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Yes, conspiracy and incitement to commit a crime

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What about all the people who participated? Wouldn't they be equally guilty, if not more so?

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Indeed they would This is just a "catch the ringleader" exercise...............I would imagine that there are a few pouting anal sphincters in Ohio right now. :D The others will doubtless crack under interrogation, and turn state's evidence against him?

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He posted a link to their site, which will be viewed by thousands, possibly clicked on, causing even more stress on the school systems.

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The site is in the public domain....................so that is their problem. If I had incited a DoS attack, it would be my problem. Anyway, they have a spare server ;)

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This was not a bot, not something that intruded on other systems to perform a DOS attack, it was a link to a site and a suggestion that they refresh.

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You are actually talking about two distinct crimes there. One to intrude onto a system and turn it into a bot; two to launch a DoS attack (by whatever means).

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But what specific crime did this person commit? What school regulation did they violate?

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That would obviously depend on your Federal and local legislation, but the Prosecutor's office/DA would not have let it get that far unless there was a very good case to answer. I would also imagine that the accused is a minor (he wasn't named) so they would be especially careful.

As for school regulations, I am not sure that they apply, as the attack appears to have been external, and outside their jurisdiction.

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Please correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know it is not a crime to be stupid!

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Once again, that would depend on your local legislation, but over here (and in most other places) it is a fundamental tenet that ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law"

:D

I voted for throwing the dummass in jail. Point being, system attacked was a publicly owned system. No sympathy from this quarter. Also, talking to mummy just doesn't work. Chances are mummy (or daddums) is the problem. At least, that's been my experience. Ya got a post for a kid, yer probably a post yer'self. (i.e.; post=fencepost; fencepost=dumb as).

jm is a man after me own heart. Small bits to start with. Works for me.

As far as conspiracy goes, who did he conspire with? All those people who viewed his site and followed his instructions?

If the kid had posted a bat file for everyone to download with instructions that everyone run it at the same time my opinion would be different. Or if the URL was specially crafted such as to cause a php error and loop. But from what I read this was not the case.

This is more akin to everyone talking at a public meeting and not allowing a politician to speak. As long as no one does anything out the ordinary and it doesn't get out of hand, everyone is doing what they have a legal right to do.