Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000
From: Benjamin Kreuter <ben.kreuter () gmail com>
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:16:29 -0500
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 On Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:32:11 +0000 Benji <me () b3nji com> wrote:
Someone please explain to me why he had to run a vulnerability scanner to check one vulnerability, and again, how are we still arguing about this? Whether you think he had a 'right' to test this or not, he was either too dumb or too naive to know it was against the law.
I do not think the issue is whether or not he broke the law; rather, the issue is whether or not the law serves the people's interest. I am not a Canadian, so maybe I do not really have a say, but given that this kid did not cause any measurable damage, it seems hard to make the case that he should have been punished for his actions. Throwing a student out of school because he used a pen-testing tool is more damaging to the school and to society as a whole than what the student actually did. There is also the matter of the school itself. They were presented with a student who had found a vulnerability, reported it, and then checked to see if there were still problems. Does expulsion really sound like a reasonable punishment to you? Does any punishment seem in order, given that the student made no attempt to maliciously exploit his discoveries? It seems to me that a much better approach would have been to offer the student a chance to present the vulnerability in a computer security class. The school's mission is, theoretically, to teach its students -- why, then, would they remove from the student body someone who could do just that? Sure, maybe the school has a policy of expulsion for any student who breaks the law -- but why would the school expel a student preemptively, before he was even found guilty by a court (or even charged with a crime)? If he had been arrested, it would have made sense for the school to put him on academic suspension until the conclusion of his criminal case, at which point a guilty verdict might mean expulsion. - -- Ben - -- Benjamin R Kreuter UVA Computer Science brk7bx () virginia edu KK4FJZ - -- "If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them." - George Orwell -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJRAVBTAAoJEOV0+MnZK9ijzUsP/i6XrD9ruCG/IJEaV7wlAmqm 9/QTXIjQ0HbMdVWfc1PhK4OHeHuGOOuKRMlr6OXl6DGCxn0I1LFkeu624MVRNZyW WhgMFi0tzMBozMyQEElcaQjK5dEnWOBGVUPvfkjnhhA+I4agqoRB2ocqWDPuN6Lq 7DixO1sqWgPksTwhaOPB1XnHKs9naqXKH2aTyS093VOm4FQyWSPASJq+MV93YiUP lkYkbwULnCdnXcUG++FLPZcLxf8ZGb48zlWWcnqowmaHYqm5DqLeGFrFF8wsyWho nK9vdCmPCc/yblRDe+HgjYgVS6zti838YD1IzX2taEGn2Ottbuo4jhmYOdviUM2D 52iKhbrdALy+08d13dM1+E4DMJjL82UGxZwgq5QOwnaUTpkqM/yGVjgNmpna/5LE zBOTkre4p8mgm/77jiFcfyD+gv16CmqsgwytcAqPxFYbOkHkY4WchPkGLccm20kV WTBEzRStOR1I0hi9xUqfiZMgRPIQfEsRsmxFiGUtXjnXhwEM6IJjz06SQ4B1103q iAZNHa/zXZuQl9cG/Ef3Szzc1JOWgR6YZb+tGTrDvtObKZXSpp7MvsyVtilcjHsE klq1HwXsdqXNeHFC9Zr1f+PTLkkpuYLOklhPFuVI+2kUs0ZfQUbFy2JlrvJeioFy nRO0oCbGKhg6Row344Iu =P/Ts -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Current thread:
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 students personal data, (continued)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 students personal data Benji (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 students personal data Philip Whitehouse (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 students personal data Jeffrey Walton (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 students personal data Ian Hayes (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 students personal data Jeffrey Walton (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 students personal data Philip Whitehouse (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Nick FitzGerald (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Sanguinarious Rose (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Nick FitzGerald (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Benji (Jan 22)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Benjamin Kreuter (Jan 24)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Gary Baribault (Jan 24)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Valdis . Kletnieks (Jan 24)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Peter Dawson (Jan 24)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Stefan Weimar (Jan 24)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Valdis . Kletnieks (Jan 24)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Jeffrey Walton (Jan 24)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Stefan Weimar (Jan 24)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 students personal data Philip Whitehouse (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 students personal data Benji (Jan 21)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Daniel Richards (Jan 22)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Ferenc Kovacs (Jan 24)
- Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000 Jeffrey Walton (Jan 21)