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Re: Student expelled from Montreal college after finding vulnerability that compromised security of 250, 000


From: Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:34:44 -0500

On Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:16:29 -0500, Benjamin Kreuter said:

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?

I've seen reference to a few more details on this - namely:

1) The kid, as part of his major, signed an ethics document.
2) He was either told or agreed to not run the scanner again.
3) He did so anyhow.

and that he didn't get kicked out because he ran the scanner, but
because he did so *in violation of the ethics standard*.

I'll probably have to go back and find references for all that - but
even without that, it's something to think about.  If somebody
agrees not to do something, and then does it anyhow, is he *trustworthy*
enough for a degree in that field?

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