A student in Coto de Caza, California has done what each and every one of us has only dreamed of doing; he broke into his school’s computers and changed his grades.
Gather ‘round children, and I’ll tell ye of the time that your old buddy Doug failed his fourth grade geography test.
See, I mistakenly labeled Pennsylvania as New York and all hell broke loose as I filled in the remaining states from top to bottom, erasing feverishly as I tried to figure out where I’d gone awry. I still remember crying in our Plymouth Grand Voyager when my mom asked me how I did. Oh how I wish I could have hacked into my school’s computers!
Anyhoo, this kid Omar Khan hacked into his school’s computer system and changed his grades so he could get into a good college. You’d almost feel bad for him, thinking that he might be one of those overachieving, nervous-breakdown types, except that he “allegedly changed Fs and Ds to As on numerous occasions,” according to Computerworld. As if none of his teachers would have noticed. “Omar got into Harvard? Really? Wow, that school must really suck now!”
As if changing a few grades wasn’t enough, Khan also allegedly “altered the permanent transcripts of at least 12 other students at Tesoro High School” and installed a malware program on the computer system to give him access from anywhere. He was finally caught when he asked for his own transcript, at which time “school officials noted a discrepancy.”
Khan faces almost 70 various felony counts, adding up to a maximum of 38 years in jail. I doubt he’ll serve anything close to that unless California’s jails somehow aren’t overcrowded any more. If he does get 38 years, though, maybe he could hack into the penal system’s computers and change the sentence to 38 minutes. He’s got college to attend in the fall! His buddy, Tanvir Singh, is also facing three years “for allegedly conspiring with Khan in the plot to manipulate grades.”
LOL… Wasn’t there a TV series with young guys that where … err… hackers or so?
Well yeah i would have loved it but all grades here were handwritten back in the day…
Now i know how to get our “check your grades here” terminals to leave notepad messages, so i consider myself above the notion of “grades”. XP / JK
Let us hope this goes into the movies as the third part of the “Hackers” trilogy!!! (JEJEJEJE)
got to love the press putting images of the movie ‘hackers’ with a story about two young adults pulling a ‘ferris bueller’s day off’ (”nine times….”)
congrats to the legal system, student had poor grades but still had ambition to attend a great university only to end up facing up to 38 years in jail… why not get the kid a tutor and shrink and give him a second chance at reaching his goals…
The average murder conviction is like 20 years, less with parole. Changing grades > murder. It all makes sense now.
I asked for a car, I got a computer.
38 years for probably waiting til a teacher leaves their computer unattended, installing a keylogger, taking a teacher password, and then installing a remote admin tool? most likely the school had terrible network security, and clearly had terrible physical security if they were able to break in to the school at night, steal tests on multiple occasions, and get away with it.
Even stupider is the fact that the school wouldnt have caught on if he hadnt requested a transcript.
Sure, its a crime and all, but the school has to take some of the blame for not having the proper restrictions in place.
Ya, so first of all he didn’t “hack” anything…he merely found a password, logged into a computer and changed his grades….please get the facts straight, the press is really out of line these days as to what is really going on. so please get a clue.
/rant
holy crap the schools have changed in the less than 10 years I’ve been out. I’m guessing that the networks are still as insecure as ever, though. When I was a kid, I was able to get in and eff with stuff really easy, changing passwords, opening loopholes for whatever was online… When they found out, I simply got banned from the computers for a while and chewed out by the principal, not arrested and charged with murder.
In Middle school, I had gone further with the camera “taser” prank zappers that everyone’s been freaking out about 12 years too late, manufacturing hundreds of them from the much more adaptable push-on electronics they used to use in the old Kodak’s.
in today’s world, I might as well have brought in an AK-47…damn I’m glad I’m not in school anymore.
These kids committed crime but it is not more cruel than a murderer.
They must be punished for community service and barred to attend their dream college as punishment to make aware other lids.
But 38 years behind bars!! Give me a break this is America and not Iran or China.
Sorry for typo above.
These kids committed crime but it is not more cruel than a murderer.
They must be punished for community service and barred to attend their dream college as punishment to make aware other kids.
But 38 years behind bars!! Give me a break!! This is America in 21st century and not in medieval age and not Iran or China.
38 years for hacking? Is that prison time or government service time? I thought the DOD was always looking for kids like this? But I guess if he was aspiring to Harvard, governmaent service is the same thing as prison time.
damm whats wrong with our government. he just changed his grades didn’t commit a murder…..38 years? a little too harsh….