A Florida high school student (I didn't catch his name off the TV) is in the dock for hacking into his high school's computer and changing other kids grades, for money. The TV showed him in orange coveralls and handcuffs. Clearly the prosecutor is preparing to throw the book at this teenage boy. Nice looking boy too, thick dark hair, combed neatly, regular features, slender, should have no trouble getting dates at school. Dates will be harder come by in the clink.
Clearly this is a practice to be discouraged. Changing people's grades, transcripts, medical records, land ownership records, bank account records, driving records, and you name it, should not be allowed. No way, No how.
But, what crime is this kid guilty of? It isn't robbery or burglary. It isn't murder, manslaughter, arson, barratry, assault, perjury, embezzlement, income tax evasion. Forgery perhaps? Traditionally forgery is printing false paper money, or creating other false documents. But we could expand it.
For once, I'm thinking we need to pass a law, criminalizing this sort of thing. Broaden the law to include altering records of any kind for profit. Give this crime a name, say fackery, for forging by hacking, Spell out the test of the crime, and the penalties. Give the judge some discretion to let first time offenders off with something less than prison, say probation or even a slap on the wrist
And let's have some penalties for officials who fail to take obvious security measures, such as requiring passwords to access sensitive records, demanding a password change every six months, keeping computers with sensitive records OFF the internet.
No comments:
Post a Comment