PC World – Business Center: Teens Charged With Loading Spyware, Changing Grades — No wonder the USA has more people in jail than any other nation on earth! In a normal “common sense” society these kids would merely be flunked out and that would be the end of it.
Two Orange County, California, teenagers have been charged with breaking into high school offices and using stolen usernames and passwords to change lackluster grades to A’s.
Omar Khan and Tanvir Singh, both 18, are facing multiple felony charges following a series of break-ins at Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Khan was arrested Monday, and Singh was expected to turn himself into court on Tuesday for arraignment.
According to prosecutors, Khan changed the D’s and C’s he was receiving in Spanish, Calculus and English to two A’s and a B . He’s also charged with stealing tests before they had been given and using a stolen username and password to break into school computers and change the grades of 12 other students.
Aren’t these guys the same ones who broke into the WOPR and almost started a Global Nuclear War?
“Khan changed the D’s and C’s he was receiving in Spanish, Calculus and English to two A’s and a B”
It seems he somehow survived the explosion in Star Trek II and is back causing more trouble.
I remember the day when if you did that you would receive jobs offers.
I remember the day when the response to kids breaking rules was proportionate and responsible.
Yea, either these guys are going to be hardened criminals or the next Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
It hard to respect the rules when the penalty to violating even a minor one is draconian.
Or respect the rulemakers for that matter.
Is the school district’s IT department going to be arrested for felony incompetence? Fraking bureaucrats and prosecutors! There is no end to the Stoopid.
Those of you who are praising these kids for their ability to “break in” (i.e. they’re the next Larry and Sergei) to the computer system and change their grades are misguided at best. They stole somebody’s username and password, probably left on a Post-It note on the side of a computer screen. It’s not like they found an exploit in the way the grade software processes TIFF images or something.
These kids are jerks who ought to be punished by having to sit out graduation or otherwise publicly embarassed. Felonies? F— that!
Anybody that breaks into an unoccupied structure with intent to commit a crime faces felony and prison time. However, if convicted it doesn’t mean the person will automatically go to prison. Of course, these ADULTS should be charged for the repeated burglaries.
I don’t feel sorry for them. I like the idea of jailing those who steal other folks’ authentication data. Ever had your email account hijacked? I have. It’s a bad feeling. Crucify them.
Thanks Mr. Pilot
Since we can see from the story, the “Perps” are not WASPS, is it any wonder that they got MAXED OUT SENTENCES ??? WASPs go to Court with their Lawyers, Psychologists, and Preachers – all tesifying what nice guys the kids are so they get a few hours of Community Service instead !!! Any racisim in Amerika ??? Nah !!!
#12, Jim,
The 38 years is the maximum sentence possible. It could range to as little as probation and community service depending upon priors and the severity of their crime.
Wait until they have been sentenced before getting upset. The chances are they will plead guilty and get something close to the low end.
<..>
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!!
#10 – You want this kid to go to jail for this? Aw, you were a dumb ass and couldn’t come up with a decent password for your e-mail account? What a pussy.
#12
They haven’t been tried in court yet so where did the maxxed out sentence come from?
Interesting how there’s always one bufoon that wants to play a race card where there isn’t one.
This is in the town where I live, thankfully my kids go to a different high school.
A good friend’s daughter graduated from there last evening, she had calculus with the burgler.
In other news, college kid downloads Rambo IV, faces 5 years in prison and $250,000 fine.
IANAL, but I think that 38 years is the MAXIMUM possible jail time, based on adding up the max penalty from everything that they could be charged with. From my years of watching crime dramas on TV, they probably charged the kids with everything they could thing of that even partially applies, hoping that at least a few charges stick.
Lets understand something STUPID..
User name and PASSWORD..
STOLEN??
Its only STOLEN if the person DIDNT give it to ANYONE..including there kids and spouse..
And NOT written DOWN on a piece of paper..
SOP, means you change the password at LEAST 1 time per month..
Smart persons change the USER name also..
The surnames of the accused tend to lead towards a more racist view.
Good. Dummies!
In the meantime, MediaDefender who was behind the DOS attack on Revision 3 over Memorial Day Weekend remains untouched despite the fact that they broke many laws and brought down a company for a weekend. If these two boys had done that, what do you want to bet they would be in the slammer for it?
Welcome to the police state
Three classes exist in this society now:
0 – The prisoners
1 – Those who have not yet had the government revoke their ‘privilege’ of freedom. But they are watching you.
2 – The government class
PS. The left lane is the government lane. Watch what happens when you sit in it, versus what happens when a government worker sits in it.
I thought it was kinda funny.
I bet if their names were Bob Johnson and Ray Smith the story would be different….
#24 Uncle Patso
I bet if you weren’t such a racist against white people you would be a human being.
#24,
I bet if their names were Bob Johnson and Ray Smith …
You mean those two black kids down the street? Good kids.