jackofallgeeks | OK, seriously...

This Slashdot article comes with an evocative title: "Why Are Students Liable For School Insecurity?" Yeah, we might find ourselves thinking, why are students being held responsible when a school's network is being compromised? If we read even as much as a sentence into the report, though, we quickly find out why: because the students are the ones compromising the system!

Whoever posted the report claims that he was punished for using a bootable CD to access the school's computers without using a password, even, he says, after he told the IT guys how to disable booting from a CD. The problem here? He still effectively broke into the computer. That's like telling your neighbor that someone could get in their backdoor by jiggling it right unless they changed the lock, and then being surprised that he called the cops when you do that! In the mildest case -- students using proxy servers to circumvent school filter software -- they are knowingly circumventing the computer-use policy of their school. Of course they're being punished. Why is this surprising?

I'm all for making the people responsible take the consequences when things go wrong, and a school should be responsible for how secure or not their network is. But the students are responsible for how they use that network, and if they use it inappropriately they ought to be punished. Even if there was 'no malicious intent,' they're still breaking the agreement they make with the school in order to use the school's systems/network. That's malicious enough if you ask me. The school has a right to maintain control of their resources, and circumventing their controls prevents this.