9-year-old hacks into school’s computer

You didn’t misread the caption of this story. A 9-year-old third-grade boy from McLean, Virginia, broke into his school district’s computer system.  Because of his age, his name has been withheld. Once discovered in March, 2010, the police obtained a search warrant and traced the action to the boy’s home – actually to his mother’s computer.

When the boy got into the school’s system, he changed the passwords of teachers and got into data regarding course content and enrollment. No damage was done and the police determined that the boy had no criminal intent in what he had done. Consequently, no charges were filed. Instead the matter was left to his parents and the school district to handle.

The break-in put the school district and the software company that provided the program for the district on notice regarding safety issues and security with the program. There have been a few schools across the country that have used these so-called black-hat hackers to help secure their systems. That’s unlikely in this case due to the boy’s age.

KrAzY KorY (Flickr)

For more about hacking, examples and consequences, see:  http://askthejudge.info/can-i-get-into-trouble-if-i-hack-into-a-schools-computer-system/2420/