Forwarded from: Russell Coker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 18:50, Jon Miller wrote: > That this student chose to use his skills to exploit a university > computer system (not well known for security in general) is > troubling. It wasn't by accident that he did this, and unless he's > been living on another planet for the past couple of years, he knows > that we don't and shouldn't have a sense of humor about such things.
Normally we don't have a sense of humor about public nudity, drunken disorderly behaviour, vandalism, unlicensed radio transmission, offensive language used in radio and public performances, and all the other things that are well tolerated at university functions. Even offenses such as impersonating police officers and theft (although temporary) of police property are treated lightly when performed by university students as part of a "prank". Why should rigging an election be treated more seriously than the huge number of other minor crimes committed by university students which are often ignored by the police? It seems to me that a common police practice when dealing with student pranks is to compell the students to repair or pay for any damage that they cause and then let them off with a warning. Why not just get the student to clean the floors of the computer labs for half a year? It will be enough punishment to deter them from doing it again (often magistrates give less punishment), it will provide some benefit to the university, and everyone will save the time and effort that goes into prosecuting the case. -- http://www.coker.com.au/selinux/ My NSA Security Enhanced Linux packages http://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/ Bonnie++ hard drive benchmark http://www.coker.com.au/postal/ Postal SMTP/POP benchmark http://www.coker.com.au/~russell/ My home page - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
