"Arrest me, I know the password"

Slipping sideways away from the Bush-bashing and looking once more to the state of society under the reign of Bush fils, brings us to Pennsylvania once again where a forward-thinking yet technologically-challenged Kutztown Area School District (KASD) issued hundreds of laptops to its students and then failed to perform due diligence to secure their own systems. But who is on the receiving end of the legal whammy? Why the students, of course, and only the students.

According to CNN, thirteen students are being charged with felony computer tresspass for using their school-issued laptops for various unauthorized purposes. The laptops came equipped with filtering and monitoring programs but the kids were able to turn the tables on their overseers and view the administors' computer screens remotely. How did they manage this nifty, little trick? Well, it helps to know the password. And it helps someone to figure out the password when it is something obvious like the school's street address. But what really helps is having that password taped to the back of the computers you give to the kids.

Sorry, folks, while I can grant you that these kids certainly wandered outside the bounds of their "Acceptable Use Agreement", its the chucklehead with no clue about computer security who is a far greater danger to the district and should be held accountable. Furthermore, the Kutztown 13 (as they've come to be known) have been charged with computer trespass, an offense state law defines as altering computer data, programs or software without permission. No where in the report do I see where such acts have taken place.

This has all the markings of a situation wherein the authorities have been thoroughly outwitted by folks smarter than they are. And, what sticks in their craw is that it they've been embarrased by kids and by using the very tools they provided. Once again we see the incompentant seeking to punish the clever. Remember when we used to laud and reward the smart ones, the creative ones?