http://www.bocaratonnews.com/index.php?src=news&am
p;prid=15078
By Nicol Jenkins and John Johnston
April 26, 2006
Boca teens feel cheated by fellow teen hackers, the Boca
Raton News
has learned.
The most recent example of teen hacking came with the arrest
of Jeff
Yorston, an 18-year-old student at West Boca Raton Community
High
School.
He was charged with felony computer fraud after police say
he used
employee passwords to change his friends' grades, give
himself credit
for classes he didn't take and erase suspensions from
records.
Police allege Yorston changed eight students' grades over
the past two
years, using computer IDs and passwords from four school
district
employees.
Some local teens expressed anger that someone would try to
take the
easy way out while others have "worked hard" to
get good grades.
Others candidly admit admiration and envy of hackers.
"He must be a pretty smart kid. If I was failing and
had the skills,
I'd do the same thing," said 18-year-old Teddy
Rutledge.
But Michael Langdon thinks hacking is unfair.
"I've been working all semester for my grades and he
just changes
his," the 15-year-old said.
Then, he joked, "I hoped he was my friend so he could
change my
grades."
Opinions Vary
The majority of the Boca teens interviewed by the Boca Raton
News said
gossip of changing grades hasn't circulated much around
school.
"I've never heard of it. And I would never be able to
figure it out
and none of my friends would be able to do it either,"
said Boca teen
Lydia Rosenfeldt. "I think it's more the computer
geeks and kids that
have nothing better to do."
Rosenfeldt, however, thought the hacking job was
"pretty impressive."
"If an 18-year-old can hack into the School Board
system maybe the
system isn't that up to par," she said.
Fernando Rodriguez, 17, also believes the hacking incident
was
"random." "I don't think that 99 percent
of the kids are capable of
doing it at all. Most of the students are not smart
enough," he said.
Dan Verton, author of The Hacker Diaries: Confessions of
Teenage
Hackers [1], says that most younger computer intruders defy
stereotypes.
"The common denominator," says Verton, "is
that hackers are both very
smart and extremely bored. They're often smarter about
computers than
the teachers they're supposed to be learning from. For
those teens,
hacking provides a challenge and encourages creative
thinking."
Parental Pressure
Some teens that spoke to the Boca Raton News think pressure
from
parents to have perfect grades may have been a motivator.
"Going
through the college process is stressful and sometimes
parents put a
lot of stress on children," said 18-year-old Danyelle
Shapiro. "One
of the motives could have been that he had a definite in to
one of the
colleges, so he didn't have to stress or worry about where
he was
going."
On the other hand, Shapiro thinks hacking is wrong.
"I don't think it's right and students don't think
it's fair," she
said. "Because when they change their grades, they
could be taking my
spot."
Boca teens Edison Alexis and Makyra Nunes agree.
"He's just messing up the whole system," Nunes
said.
Alexis added, "It could make our grades lower or
higher."
Most hackers are motivated by a need for constant
stimulation and a
sense of respect from their peers. For many, a
"good" hack is one that
gives a thrill of accomplishment and teaches something about
the
targeted system. Teens say, however, a bad hack isn't
measured by the
damage it does - it's measured by whether the hacker gets
caught - and
a further measure authorities say reflects a situational
ethics,
rather than moral view of the world.
Some Signs
Experts offer the following signs for parents:
* A child who asks you to change ISPs might be into more
than
cybertalk.
* Do you find programs on your computer that you don’t
remember
installing?
* New hardware requests sometimes tip off a hacking
interest.
* How much time does your child spend using the computer
each day?
Hacking takes a lot of time.
* Does your child use Quake or Linux?? And a child
struggling
academically might be tempted.
John Johnston can be reached at 561-549-0833, or at
jjohnston (at)
bocanews.com; Nicol Jenkins can be reached at njenkins (at)
bocanews.com or 561-549-0844.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072223642/c4iorg
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