Schoolboy hacker Omar Khan who upped his grades faces 38 years in jail

Schoolboy hacker Omar Khan who upped his grades faces 38 years in jail

www.timesonline.co.uk

It could be a long time before Omar Khan goes to college: as long as 38 years, according to Orange County prosecutors, who have arrested and charged the 18-year-old student with breaking into his prestigious high school and hacking into computers to change his test grades from Fs to As.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I think he did a crime but come on next 38 year in jail. He dnt murdered or so. why dnt gov use these smart kids(but in wrong side) to improve its cyber security enforcements .

www.timesonline.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

you know its seems the last decade or so they are realy over doing hacking sentencing i mean yeah they commited a crime and should recieve a fair trial. but hackers are getting sentences that way abouve those gotten by your average rapist or child molester what the hell! wheres peoples sense of justice changing a grade is worse then child molestation? thats just sad.

Hmm I agree with ya here. I think it's a bit rediculous.. But I think I know why.

They are setting an example. Someone that can break through walls and do what they want with the worlds number one means for communication is someone far more dangerous to THEM than a rapist.

I dont mean to make rape or murder seem not so bad.. its just "there is no knowledge that is not power" and if "THEY" cant protect all their information "THEY" are F*@&$D they have to be hard on these guys or they lose thier controll.

That being said.. poor bugger aye haha

I agree. For to harsh of a sentence.
OJ gets off, this guy goes to jail for giving himself an A.
A crime still, yes, but come on, 38 years.

Kind of funny though. Smart kid. WIsh I knew how to do that stuff

guess he believed he was not even going to get a sentencing so he probably got a crappy lawyer or one of those free solicitors. The courts probably thought they would set an example to kids who are going to cause problems like this.

but in my opinion this guy did deserve it. Maybe should have been suspended or expelled with serving parole, community service..

Ya this sucks..

I could do this if I wanted to learn.. But ADD gets the better of me...

This crime should only get a few yrs.. It reminds me of Kevin Mitnick how they held him 5 or more yrs without trial...

What happened to a slap on the wrist and community service? It is a sad day when a Ferris Bueller type crime can get you locked up for 38 years. Absolutely shameful.

There are quite a few charges levied against him other than just hacking.

Breaking and entering numerous times, destruction of property amongst other things.


You have to balance what he did against how many other people have been detrimentally affected.

If he has a clean background and the community hasn't been affected to a great extent, probation and community service would do it for me.
If not, let the chips fall where they may.

I'm in agreement with severe sentences punishing hackers who've affected thousands if not millions of people.

Hacking is not a harmless crime and the people who do it are not heroes....

Originally posted by 123space


I think he did a crime but come on next 38 year in jail. He dnt murdered or so. why dnt gov use these smart kids(but in wrong side) to improve its cyber security enforcements .

Yes i agree the gov. should use these people to improve security on other systems, but then again, they're will always be someone better down the line. So jail a couple but not for stupid amounts of time, 38 years for giving himself improved grades?.
What about the guys that send viruses out into the world that cause millions of pounds or dollars worth of damage to compnaies or even crashing home systems. what do they get ? they get a slap on the wrist most of the time or at least a few months behind bars, send them b*stards away for 38 years for being an inconvenience to ordinary joe public.

Two thoughts...

1. Had the dude merely changed his own grades, he wouldn't be looking at this severity of charges right now. The fact that he altered the grades of at least 12 others brings everyone's grades into question at that school. While unlikely (but no more unlikely than him actually recieving 38 years in prison for this) it could result in a graduating senior from that school not getting into an elite university program. Some selection board somewhere could say "Hmm... we have one opening in our pre-law program and we have two candidates, one from Slobbyknob Accademy and this Jane Doe from Tosoro High, each with almost identical grades. Hey... wasn't Tosoro the school where that hacker altered some student's grades, giving them higher marks?" Like I said, not likely, but really not unfathomable in the cut throat competitive world of high level college admissions. So his actions didn't just negatively affect him and the 12 who's grades he changed, they negatively affected the entire school.

2. Anyone who thinks this kid will recieve a 38 year sentence doesn't pay attention to California's legal system very much. Their prison system is so overcrowded and underfunded that there is virtually no way in hell he'll see the inside of any cell higher up the chain than county. If he's found guilty, he'll get time served, a HUGE fine, and probably see 3 or 4 years of probation and almost certainly community service. If he pleads, then he can probably manage just the fine and probation.

Here is a thread I think is relevant....
Guy hacks NASA...

In both cases I feel they are going overboard. If rapists and murderers are looking at less than 20 years....

Why are they treating hackers worse than the "real" criminals?
Are they more scared of intellectuals than monsters?

reply to post by Desert Dawg


You got to be kidding right ? let the chips fall ? 38 years ???

Thats not falling chips, thats slamming everest on the kids head.

38 years....this is just mind-boggling. Our criminal justice system is so flawed, it's almost beyond belief!! Cut the kid some slack, give him probation, community service, and take away his electronic gadgets for a few years...I think that would probably be enough to set him straight on this kind of behavior.

Originally posted by Dan Tanna
reply to post by Desert Dawg

 

You got to be kidding right ? let the chips fall ? 38 years ???

Thats not falling chips, thats slamming everest on the kids head.

I didn't say to give him the full 38 years he could be facing.

Quoted from my earlier post to give a bit more context.
"If he has a clean background and the community hasn't been affected to a great extent, probation and community service would do it for me.
If not, let the chips fall where they may."


So where does a person draw the line?

Is it the subject matter being hacked?
Some seem to think if it's of interest to a lot of folks then it's ok.

Course once they get your credit cards and other info I imagine most would be up in arms about that.



[edit on 20-6-2008 by Desert Dawg]

lol Why did this guy get F 's on his tests but can hack into his schools systems and change his grade? lol Sounds to me he past his tests lol

These people are scooped up right after their smoke clears by big named corporations, To do security or even company spying for them. They dont get the dirty end of the stick by any means, in fact hackin like that is almost the same as sending resumes out.... only this resume goes as far as the news takes it.....

I bet this kid will be seeing a Single digit with alot of 0's after it soon......

an for the charges yeah their gonna tack on all kinds of things to make this seem like a no win situation, plus they are too dumb to understand fully what they linked the whole world with, a virtual playground....

He also edited my post ...... with a stick of gum...

[edit on 20-6-2008 by Trance Optic]

Originally posted by Grafilthy

Why are they treating hackers worse than the "real" criminals?

Hackers, Virus creators and Identity Thieves cost Billions annually. They are the same people generally doing all of the above. How, exactly is that not being a real criminal?

Had he obtained a spot in a University he would have also stolen that spot from someone who earned it. It would have affected his victims entire life and future. These are not silly teenage movie pranks.

He also physically broke into the school. Not a "real" crime?

These people do not just change all of the sudden either. He would surely go on to worse and worse crimes had he not been caught. He will do probation, a couple of days in jail and clean up some roadside trash and I'll bet he is back in the news a few years down the road committing a far more serious crime.

Well you don't even get 38 years for killing somebody in some states, if you have money to buy the best lawyer, but we are now a terrorist fighting nation so we all posible terrorist, what else can we expect from our fair court system

reply to post by Blaine91555


I think you missed the point of my post.

What I am saying is that there are serious problems with the doling out of punishment in our justice system.

A Milton Academy student has been expelled and three others have been suspended for the rest of the school year after they hacked into the elite private school's computer system, changed grades, altered attendance records, and, in one case, gained access to an exam before it was administered, according to a letter school officials sent to parents last week.
more stories like this

The security breach last month prompted school administrators to ask faculty to review the midterm grades of all students in the upper school.

"The actions of all four students had potentially profound effects," Rick Hardy, the interim head of school, wrote in the letter. "They undermined the security of communication among all members of the community and threatened the validity of the attendance and grading systems, which must be inviolable."

Link to source.

Breaking and entering....thats one thing.
Changing grades....thats another.

He should be kicked out of school, sure. But prison time?
Any two bit IT guy can see what changes were made and correct them. There is no irreparable damage done.

Oh, and by the way... you know how much those anti-virus companies raked in so far this year? Symantec alone pulled down $1.4 billion!

Call it IT job security.

What a potentially rediculous sentence ! If he can "hack" a system, it just shows who up the dopes who manage the college server, they're the ones who should be in court for dereliction of duty. Possibly though, the Govt knows that its own systems are not secure, and as they can't "get" the real hackers they are sending a message out that they don't want students to show how unsecure state secrets are. We don't have that trouble in the UK, the idiots in charge just load up a dvd with confidential/top secret and personal data and leave it on trains or in cars.