Teen faces 38 years for hacking

Hey! The prison system does work! It is a business model. Recycle and improve production. People are imprisoned because they are stupid, petty criminals. Put 'em in prison, make 'em harder smarter criminals by giving them 'wiser' teachers with nothing left to lose. They leave, but they ALWAYS come back. I wish people would evolve Already! Safety and security can NEVER be guaranteed. "Those who would sacrifice a little liberty for security deserve neither.." Google it, some terrorist in the 18th century said it. School system sucks too, only those that conform may proceed, taught by the bottom of the barrel. LONG Live FERRIS!

I am definitely old school, believing in good morals and ethics. Spiritually speaking, stealing is a sin. Lets not forget, that it is morally and ethically wrong. My purpose here is to express why I feel the punishment is too harsh. 
Here we have a young man "Omar", who conducted some criminal activity, bottom line he got caught. Yes, some sort of punishment should be expected. Why not try to have society benefit for the criminal act Omar committed. 
First of all, Omar should be dismissed from the school, to repeat the same grade again (no matter what his other grades reflected). Secondly, I feel the judge should sentence Omar to community service at a facility, that would (A) benefit the facility with Omar's computer skills (B) the facility to be of a charitable contribution of life, which Omar's time would pay society back and may actually change the young man's character (C) recommend a one year community service on every Friday and Saturday, with stipulation that failure to follow through will result in full term punishment reactivated.
Let's look now at the 12 individuals that had their grades changed. They should have their grades adjusted or be required to take a final exam in each course, grading resulting on if they would pass or not. You all can't believe that these 12 people didn't know about Omar's act...and even if they didn't know, they are just as dishonest for not revealing the truth. I might sound like I am living in a fantasy world, but ladies and gents...There was a time when integrity, loyalty, honesty truly meant something... A man's word was his bond. You can strip away everything a man has and he is still left with his word...Break your word and u have nothing..
In conclusion, think about your life...None of us is perfect...We all made mistakes (some willingly and some accidental) ...No one wants to be condemned...So for those who want to throw the book at this man, As Jesus said " If there is any man among you that have never sinned, may he be the first to cast his stone...Sorry for getting offline, but there is a point for those who can see my point.

what a story

i did the same thing back in 2003.. my junior year of HS, three of my friends and i found a couple exploits and decided to "hack" the school systems. we had access to everything from transcripts, to finances, to attendance records....

of course, the plan was anything but malicious in intent... we only improved our grades. we all hoped to get into prestigious universities..

we all came from upper-middle class backgrounds living in southern california with our families...

changed transcript grades to mostly A's, and put a couple B's in there to blend it in...


we were ultimately snitched by another student. the school called the cops and we were arrested....

we ended up getting two felonies and a wobbler (not quite a felony) each... 


the court ordered us to serve six months of JAWS (juvenile alternate work service) at Barry J Nidorf hall in Sylmar, California (which was quite an experience)... also, we were all legally restricted from associating with each other, and also from using a computer for a full year. 
restitution was $11,000 from each family

at the end of probation, the judge sealed my juvenile record... my adult record is clean.

i was 17 at the time of arrest (and i was thus tried as a juvenile)

but 38 years for this crime? i feel for this kid.. he took a more hands-on approach with master-keys and such, whereas i did the work from my computer at home....


fun stuff... 

i'm glad i got caught... since then i basically shifted my interests from computers to a more broad range of interests...

after the ordeal, i ended up getting into college on my own merit. i'm graduated this year with a bachelor's in economics from a prestigious university. 

for the record, my personality type is INTJ (myers-briggs) and i'm sure this kid's is something similar

If this had been "back in the day" and the kid had broken into the school and "hacked" his teacher's gradebook with an eraser and a pencil to change his and 12 of his closest friends' grades he'd get a slap on the wrist and maybe suspended or held back a year. But because he used a keyboard instead of a pencil you people are ready to throw him in jail for longer than if he'd murdered someone! (The average sentence for murder in America is 15 years, with some murderers being released on parole after as little as 2 years.)

All of those people who constantly scream "give him the chair!" for every little misdemeanor seriously need to get a clue. And to the people who think jail is comfortable, who constantly complain that criminals have it good - they get to work out all day and watch TV and get fed three times a day - I'd like to see them spend 15 DAYS in a real jail and then tell me that 15 years is "a slap on the wrist".

Seriously people, wake up! This is a HIGH SCHOOL KID we're talking about here, not a terrorist. And just because the crime involved a computer doesn't make it any more nefarious. Face it... the world is moving on and just because you're ignorant of today's technology doesn't make every 12 year old that can manipulate it to do things you're not supposed to be able to do with it a witch.

A kid inKentucky was sentenced to life in prison for hacking his own parents!
He hacked them to death with an axe!

hahaha
marijuanaman.com

If a drug-addicted 18-year-old from a broken family breaks into a school and steals $10,000 of computer equipment, there's a near-unanimous screaming to throw the book at him. $10,000 of loss, and he honestly didn't know any better.

If a 18-year-old from a well-to-do family causes $1M in damage to a computer system, the popular opinion is to "give him another chance" because "he has his whole life ahead of him", even though he's caused far more damage than the above drug addict.

Let's make the punishment fit the crime and use this young man as an example.

Does this mean Micro$oft will be indicted for intentionally adding DHLS accessible exploits to XP and IE beginning with SP 2.

How many years did those guys in that Israeli company CheckPoint get for stealing 100,000s of banking records from that SHoe Store Change.

Does this mean that MITRE and PTECH (both Israeli Companies) will get popped for triggering the nuke logistics control software at Minot AFB to allow 6 thermonuclear bombs be strapped on the bottom of a B 52 that flew to Barks Dale AFB?

I want real justice - justice for millions of murders - screw some pansy kid doing something anyones grandmother could do on a computer - that's not news - Minot is News. CheckPoint is News.




Maybe if he spent half the time he did learning to "hack" and instead putting 50 percent into his grades he would'nt have to "hacked" into anything. But i dont believe he deserves 38 years, He should get one for the hacking 37 for being such a stupid towel head.

wOOt et al are missing the point. It is not a religious issue but a racial one. I spent three years in Northern India looking for a good one at a time when they numbered about a billion. Couldn't find one. Maybe a good one has turned up in the population increase since that time but I doubt it. They are ALL mendacious and corrupt but that is just their way of life. The best punishment for these two is deportation back to India.

Put in jail everyone who is smarter than security software corporations!

US justice system is a mockery of all this decent and good and human. An oppresionist fascist nation state ruled with an iron fist.

I like the star trek song.

enough said...

in the film Oxford Blues and everyone seemed to think it was cool.

Clearly it is criminal but commonly there is a degree of clemency applied to young students who err.

You dont suppose this 38 years business has anything to do with the fact his name is Khan do you?

What's with all this Star Trek nonsense Jim?
Everyone who has ever lied on their CV better do a little tipp-ex'ing, pretty quick!
Live long and prosper.

hmmmmmmmm maybe they should 'leg it' and lie low somewhere safe for a while, maybe learn to play a musical instrument, too much 'redeye' in orange county by all accounts O_o

i think ive found just the place, no sherifs, no schools, wide open spaces, no pooters/technology, 100% green, nothing goes to waste, carbon footprint Zeeeeeeeeeerooooooo :O) 

see here :- http://tinyurl.com/2y8xn6

whatcha think ?? O_O

we are in the midst of a growing world and this is how a student gets his punishment....plz understand this,there are two ways of understanding this scenario:
Negative:
-he hacked the pc n changed his marks,so if he is let free,he might do it again in future for a bigger case..
Positive:
-dont u all c him with a vision,he's young yet smart in doing this in a small scale,wat if he is given a chance to bring up his talent,not all the bunch in the god damm world can hack man.
-if he's given the proper education separately,in no time he can be the savior of our lives in the future...Ur antivirus runs today is becoz a hacker helped u to provide the signatures,damm 38 years man,its gonna spoil the kids life...
-give him a chance,Albert Einstein was thrown out of school,take it as a example...
-gv him a chance to restruct his mistakes he dun earlier...remember its not too late,ican make a change,so could u...

They're not going to get 38 years for this. Do you understand what "maximum" means? 38 years is the absolute maximum that they could get. More likely is that they'll plea bargain down to 2-5 years and be out in half for good behavior. Which wouldn't be overkill, considering that they're on trial for a lot of felonies.

Though I'm wondering why there aren't more people pointing out that the kids aren't really hackers. They stole some keys and stole some teacher account names and passwords and then used them to alter their grades. They also might have installed a program (written by a real hacker, no doubt) to enable remote access of the school computers. As though that requires a great amount of ingenuity to pull off.

The kids aren't getting this treatment because they look foreign, it's because people really don't like hackers. They've read about or possibly experienced hack attempts that have compromised credit cards, defaced websites, led to identity theft, etc.

Actually, identity theft is the thing that I would worry most about in this whole thing. When I went to high school, the program that held the grades also held student names, birthdays, SSNs and addresses. If they had access to the grades, they may also have had access to everything they'd need to steal their classmates' identities later on.

Yeah if he is convicted of every charge and given maximum consecutive sentence he will get 38 years, but that will never happen. 8th offence drunk drivers who kill an entire family happily crusing along in their minivan only get 15-20. He'll probably get a few years of probation.

There was an accomplice in all of this too - some Mr Singh kid who is also going to get sentenced. Its funny though that only the muslim kid makes the news - Proof that the media these days is anti-islamic.

Its a bit obvious that because they are asian they are going to get the book thrown at them. If they were white it would have been a slap on the wrist. If they were jewish they would be applauded and get taken on by the FBI/CIA/MOSSAD.

typical american poopookaka.

i still don't understand why the kid has to take all the blame? what about the teachers whose incompetence lead to such intrusion? aren't they also responsible?

Star Trekkin', across the universe 
On the Starship Enterprise, under Captain Kirk 
Star Trekkin', across the universe 
Boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse 

Lt. Uhura, report! 

Uhura: 
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow 
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, Jim 

Analysis, Mr. Spock! 

Spock: 
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it 
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, Captain 

Uhura: 
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow 
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, Jim 

Star Trekkin', across the universe 
On the Starship Enterprise, under Captain Kirk 
Star Trekkin', across the universe 
Boldly going forward, still can't find reverse 

Medical update, Doctor McCoy 

McCoy: 
It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim. Dead, Jim. Dead, Jim. 
It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim. Dead, Jim, Dead. 

Spock: 
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it 
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, Captain 

Uhura: 
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow 
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, Jim! 

Starship Captain, James T. Kirk 

Kirk: 
Ah! We come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, shoot to kill 
We come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, men 

McCoy: 
It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim. Dead, Jim. Dead, Jim. 
It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim. Dead, Jim, Dead. 

Spock: 
Well, it's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it 
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, Captain 

Uhura: 
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow 
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, scrape them off, Jim! 

Star Trekkin', across the universe 
On the Starship Enterprise, under Captain Kirk! 
Star Trekkin', across the universe 
Boldly going forward, and things are getting worse! 

Engine Room, Mister Scott 

Scotty: 
Ye canna change the laws of physics, laws of physics, laws of physics! 
Ye canna change the laws of physics, laws of physics, Jim. 

Kirk: 
Ah, we come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, shoot to kill! 
We come in peace, shoot to kill, Scotty, beam me up! 

McCoy: 
It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim! Dead, Jim! Dead, Jim! 
It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim! Dead, Jim, Dead! 

Spock: 
Well, it's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it 
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, Captain 

Uhura: 
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow. 
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, Jim! 

Scotty: Ye canna change the script, Jim! Up ta you, Jimmy! 

McCoy: It's worse than that, it's physics, Jim! 

Kirk: Bridge to engine room, warp factor nine! 

Scotty: Ach! If I give 'er any more she'll blow, Captain! 

BOOM

"faces 38 years" is just typical INQ sensationalism and slanted "journalism" (one can't use that term too loosely here)

an objective look at this would probably conclude that some of the charges are likely to be dropped, and that *typical* sentences for this crime for this type of perp will more likely be some combination of probation and community service

How is it this kid was smart enough to break his school's records dept, but too dumb to consider that calling attention to the fact that his star-studded record met with a denial of admission, might attract further scrutiny?


Hackers are the ones who develop your firewalls, the media has corrupted your view of what a true hacker really is. Hackers have morals and viewpoints; they aren't there to destroy, humiliate or to ruin someone, they are the ones who develop your anti-spyware and keep your operating systems safe. Crackers (not the racist term) are the people who do all of that. Don't immediately scream "MY CREDIT CARD HAS BEEN STOLE, HACKERS DID THIS!" Please, do some fucking research before you blame hackers for all of the networked society's problems.

Excellent news!

I don't understand why we are being so civilized about this?! why only 38 years??

We can take him to a football stadium for a public stoning!!

That will show them pesky students some proper pillars of education!

After all, no student has ever altered grades before, not for him or herself but for other students as well.
The fact that a "computer" was used via "hacking" surely means the crime is much more severe. After all, they didn't have those oppertunities in the 60s...

All things considered, I think it's a good use of the tax payer's money. Have a court case to ascertain the exact punishment befitting this most atrocious crime.

After all, if you murder someone, you could get less time, hoorah for the justice system!

Lt. Saavik: You lied. 
Capt. Spock: I exaggerated. 
Capt. Spock: The needs of the many, out weigh the needs of the few. 
Admr. James T. Kirk: I don't like to lose. Khan, I'm laughing at the superior intellect.
Lt. Saavik: Humor. It is a difficult concept. It is not logical. 
Admr. James T. Kirk: We learn by doing. "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times". Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young, Doctor. We're alive only because I knew something about these ships that [Khan] didn't. Khan, you bloodsucker! You're going to have to do your own dirty work now, do you hear me? Do you?! KHHHHAAAAAAAAN!
Leonard McCoy: Lieutenant, you are looking at the only Starfleet cadet to ever beat the no-win senario. [points to Kirk] 
Saavik: How? 
James T. Kirk: I reprogrammed the simulator so that it was possible to rescue the ship. 
Saavik: What? 
David Marcus: He cheated. 
James T. Kirk: I changed the conditions of the test; got a commendation for original thinking. I don't like to lose.
Commodore PET: c:



re: "...just some sad-sacks sitting in their bedrooms in their mammy's house..."
-------
.
some are quite content in their fully tricked-out basement pad... just sayin'
.

furrrrrrrrkin brilliant, "he wont do that again" nearly choked on me first drink of the day !!! 

orange county jail lol, its coss theyre asian, strikes me theyre getting off light in redneck country !!!!

"According to the Orange County District Attorney and the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the duo conducted most of their hacking and theft activities between January and May of this year. During that time, Khan broke into the school on numerous occasions at night and on weekends using a stolen master key. He then allegedly attempted to steal his teachers' login credentials and passwords to change his C, D and F grades to As and Bs. Khan also allegedly planted spyware on his teachers computers to access the school network remotely.

In addition to changing his own grades, Khan is accused of altering the grades of 12 other students"

chill out peeps, it could have been worse, it could have been whiteys lol O_o

Ferris Bueller did it. He was cool.

And how many years did the people responsible for the Sony rootkit get?

38 years for a teen, for hacking? That would be a case for The European Court of Human Rights, due to the lack of anything equivalent in the US.

Omar Khan? 

The kid should be sent to Guantanamo and tortured until he reveals the location of Bin-Laden.

Sheesh! What were his parents thinking giving him such an obviously suspicious name?

Hackers are the biggest bloody nuicence for anyone who runs servers or web sites or anything that is public facing. 

These assholes cause the loss of thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars. They destroy valuable, sometimes irreplaceable data. And I can tell you, it's no fun if it happens to you!

Most of these losers aren't even trying to steal anything or make money. They are just some sad-sacks sitting in their bedrooms in their mammy's house and imagine that they are super-villains.

They should all be shot!! Or hanged!! Or both!! Yes, hanging and shooting for all of them!! That'll teach 'em!

He changed his grades to get into college, not that grades should matter all that much. If someone wants to go to college and apply themselves there and pay all the tuition and all that why should high school,middle school, or any other grade matter so much. Grades are supposed to be used to help assess what a student should take, it helps determine what classes/subjects need better skills to achieve a certain level of accuracy to do well in, not make a supreme judgment if someone can do something or not. Yes he did break into the school and some other things, but how can putting him in prison for 38 years help him become a better person of society or repay his dept to society? The prison system is a failed experiment that no one has stopped!!!! Most experiments that are not working are changed. Give him a month in Jail, and community service helping kids see why actually doing homework in school and putting an effort in school pays off and not to do things that lead to desperate deeds. Everyone that thinks prisons are good are either making money from them or are so lost in there little worlds that they can't see that over all prisons turn out more criminals more terrible people than what went into them to begin with. especially when you start off with little kids and treat them like S*** take everything from them, teach them to hate society, cops and ..... I could go on but I won't. What people say and do effects everyone else.

So, B&E, hacking official documents not only pertaining to himself but upto 12 other students...

Throw the book at him, thats not the sort of thing you do "to see if you can get away with it".

Anyone remember Wargames?

The yoof of today really lack originality!!