Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

 
Silly DJ, Hacking is for kids. | Lineman.Net.  This is painful.  Just painful.  Somebody screwed around, then fessed up (while in the process of being tracked-down through some simple computer forensics), and this rather real IM conversation happened between the perpetrator and the semi-victim.  I originally thought this was Lineman, a teacher, as semi-victim, and I see it is more complicated than that.  The semi-victim's ethical counseling consists of "Silly Dj learn to cover yourself next time, names have been changed to keep
UMBC from expelling Silly DJ for computer hacking and what not." And "When it comes down to it, I knew who it was before he imed me. It was just a matter of whos getting into trouble and how much. Cause I dont want people out of school cause of this, but people need to know. Don't mess with my network."  For Lineman, the hanging judge, the question is "Why don't you want him to get fired? It sure looks like he needs to be."

I get it (slaps forehead).  I have this idea that teachers, especially mathematicians, have some higher moral and ethical outlook, and would acknowledge the perp (as we say in the police procedural novels that I read) for coming forward and fessing up.  The good cop then looks for an appropriate minimal way the perp can make ammends:  say 8 hours of community service at a hacker recovery group and food line.  I'm not teasing.  There is a lesson and the perp is already learning it.  As a good coach, I would let the perp create the sentence.  It looks like this perp is ready for that.  Justice is complicated, isn't it?  Or maybe we make it that way.  (I wonder how this would work with some US MPs that have had their handiwork in the news lately.  Being Solomonic in how they make ammends.  I want to see that CD-ROM.)

posted by Dennis at 5/5/2004 11:40:02 AM