Don't get too pissed Americans, it's a joke. Most of you are quite alright.

You're trolling wrong.

remembering a computer password is NOT hacking. Props for the kid, but this is a major overreaction. Personally I believe hacking is going to be one of the biggest problems in the next century, but since I dabble with code I choose to not care as much.

@Steephie the thing is though it's not really a joke. It actually is kinda unusual these days to read a story about an arrest that didn't involve one of the following: police beating someone in handcuffs, policing killing someone in the course of arrest, police stealing money or property from someone, or police planting evidence to cover illegal arrests.

So while most of us might be alright, for those of us watching, there isn't much that's funny here.

P.S. I went to public school in Florida, it actually is kinda surprising this kid didn;t get roughed up a little. One of the middle schools (kids aged 11-14) of my hometown went through 3 resource officers (the cop that's always on the campus) in the span of about 4 months due to tasering/pepperspraying/excessive use of force on the students.

"I went to public school in Florida"

I'm sorry to hear that.

American police don't believe that there is such a thing as "excessive force". Nothing to see here, people. Just another ridiculously frivolous arrest by a ridiculously messed up justice system.

@ Puddle - no wonder you believed the stuff about climate change.

@Mahar, haven't you heard? Florida government banned the words climate change and global warming, I did not get Amy information about image change from public school.

Any* climate* damn autocorrect

So the school royally fucks up by making an insecure admin password, so when that comes to light they have a kid arrested instead of admitting they screwed up?

The kid should have gotten at least suspended. Genuine questions, would it have been a crime if an adult had hacked someone's computer?

Watching someone enter a password is NOT hacking.

Acting on that knowledge, though, is hacking, no discussion to be had. Shoulder surfing is probably the simplest means of gaining unauthorized access to a system.

It's 2015 - when are we making negligent computer security a crime?

password123!

We had a damned clever kid at my school who developed a program that, when loaded on to a school computer, allowed you to remote control it from any other computer in the school network. Sending people messages telling them that they had initiated a permanent shut down and memory wipe, and then turning their computer off, never stopped being funny :).

When caught we were given a very stern look by Mrs Finch. This Yank kid got off easy...

Actually, I find shoulder surfing alone to be reproachable. There's no reason for you to look over my shoulder while I'm providing my credentials other than expecting to obtain said credentials.
Keep in mind that I'm not trying to side with the negligent admins, or even trying to justify the repercussions the kid suffered; I just don't agree with painting him as innocent. He sought out credentials to a system for which he was not authorized, and then used those credentials to gain access to the system. It having been easy doesn't make it ok.

Bueller? Bueller?

@rmf, I'm not painting him as innocent, but calling this a felony charge of hacking is some of the dumbest shit I've heard in a long time. No damage was done, literally no monetary damage was caused, which is usually required for this type of charge. Detention sure, a suspension seems way over the line. I knew the admin password at my high school and played games with it. Some staff members knew, and didn't give a shit. The whole thing is blown way out of proportion and is a staggering waste of police time.

Oh, I guess we're on the same page, then :)

"who knows what this teenager might have done."

Probably the most 1984 reason I've ever heard for arresting someone.

I obtained administrator access at my high school in a much more secure environment and did worse things than changing someone's wallpaper and I got away with only a severe admonishment and the loss of trust from my favourite teacher who happened to be the sysadmin. But then that was more than a decade ago and not in the USA.

Teenage hackers can start nucleothermal wars. Just remember that.

Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess?

Nah, tic-tac-toe is more my style :)

Also, if this student is being charged with a felony, it seems only fair that the school's SysAdmin is executed. You know, to keep everything in proportion.

Maybe we should disband the Florida public school system too just to be safe. You never know how many other students know the admin password.

I mean, we should disband the Florida public school system anyway, this "incident" aside.

We should probably just give everyone in Florida smallpox. Otherwise who knows what they might do.

"I mean, we should disband the Florida public school system anyway"

Hey, there's an idea.