September 6, 2007
A Student at Texas A&M Is Charged With Hacking Its Computer System
A student at Texas A&M University has been charged with masterminding a hack attack that prompted the institution to tell more than 90,000 campus-network users to change their passwords.
Louis Castillo, a graduate student in computer science, could face five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 if he is found guilty of charges of breaking into a database that contained network log-in names and passwords of current and former students, faculty members, and other university employees. The incident took place in February, and campus officials said then that they might have caught the intruder before he absconded with any personal information. But the attack still caused more than $5,000 in damages, as Pierce Cantrell, the university’s vice president and associate provost for information technology, told The Bryan-College Station Eagle.
—Brock Read
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The highest ethical standards must prevail in this instance.
William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
NATIONAL FORUM JOURNALS
— Dr. William Allan Kritsonis Sep 6, 06:29 PM #
What does that mean?
Too bad this young man couldn’t use his obvious intelligence for the benefit of TAMU and the rest of the world instead lowering himself to the criminal element.
— Tracy G Sep 7, 10:08 AM #
It doesn’t mean a thing, which is the case with most of Kritsonis’s postings (nearly always of the “Yeah, Me Too” variety, they come in waves, like raw sewage returning to shore). Dr. K just likes to “make a name for himself” with these “public” postings… of course, drawing attention to this just helps his cause, so I hope the Chronicle community will accept my apologies for having played into his hands…
— Will O Sep 7, 12:50 PM #
I can’t help but notice that Dr. K isn’t brandishing his affiliation with Prarie View A&M or the TAMU System today.
— Andrew Sep 7, 01:59 PM #
The way I see it is Dr. K has no life other than the internet so leave him alone. He can’t help it the internet is all he has. As for the hacker, if a University can’t defend against a simple hacker attempt then it must not have that great of security. If I found out that my University didn’t have very good security I would be very upset. My work has over 20 hack attempts a week and no one has gotten in in years.
— David Sep 7, 03:22 PM #
Surely David and everyone else that reads the Chronicle understands that a private enterprise network is far easier to secure that an open campus network. I’ve heard the analogy (can’t remember where) that a private business network is to a university network as Fort Knox is to a 1,000 acre tent. One is mostly walls with few windows and doors whereas the other has few walls and consists mostly of windows and doors. When a network has thousands of public facing IP’s and a edge firewall with enough required holes to resemble a sieve, security is challenging indeed.
— Don Sep 7, 05:25 PM #