Today two Ohio teens will be charged with illegal access to their high school’s computer. On Monday, the two girls posted a “school cancelled due to snow” announcement on their school’s website. They had somehow obtained a secret password to the school’s website, whether by social engineering (ie, tricking somebody into giving it to them, ala the infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick) or using some kind of simple password cracker (I’m guessing that this high school probably used a dictionary word for its “secret password,” it would be relatively easy to crack).
According to The Columbus Dispatch:
One of the girls, 16, was charged in Butler County Juvenile Court with delinquency counts of unauthorized use of a computer and records tampering. The other girl, 17, was charged with a delinquency count of complicity, Sheriff’s Sgt. Monte Mayer said. Their names were not released.
The company that runs the Web site, RCH Networks Inc. of Middletown, said the system was not hacked into because no security breach was detected. Administrators say the girls must have gotten the password.
“The Web site wasn’t hacked. It was accessed,” RCH President Craig Hesson said.
Um, yeah. FYI, “hacking” is one way that your web site can be “accessed.” Leave it to the girls to show you how lame your “security” software really is. Sorry, but a firewall from Symantec won’t protect you from kids who want the day off school.
Look, were lots of confusing green letters scrolling past on a black background? Did the screen clear and say ACCESS DENIED a couple of times until their seekrit hacker mojo worked? No? Well then, it couldn’t possibly have been hacking!
Maybe someday, girls will gently pet and coax their way into the Pentagon….
Girl hackers? What a concept.
I think the sistem is ruining two girl lives.