IN-DEPTH
11
VOLUME 15 • ISSUE 4 JANUARY 27, 2014
meena chetty editor in chief
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Upper School history and government teacher Julie Wheeler never expected to be the victim of credit card fraud. But allegedly because of retailer Target’s recent announcement of a security breach compromising the credit card information of over 40 million customers, this has now become a reality. Chase, her credit card company, contacted her because of some “unusual activity.” Wheeler and her Chase representative sifted through each of her recent purchases, confirming which ones were hers. They then stumbled on a $5000 purchase on a website “Of course I’m upset. You in the United Kingdom. Had the thief made smaller purchases feel a little violated. Then from domestic websites, Wheelagain, I mean, er doubts that she or her bank would have tracked it. it’s discon“You just don’t think about certing, but and don’t ever look at your credit we use their conveniences.” card statements for fraudulent charges,” Wheeler said. “If you never check your credit report, it could be such headache, such a hassle if you’re trying to get a job. Or in the financial world, they check your credit and they investigate all of this, and all of a sudden you look sketchy.” According to The Huffington Post, the Target breach affected customers who shopped from Nov. 27 to Dec. 15, 2013. Wheeler moved on to express concern over privacy and hacking in general. “An expectation of privacy is no longer a social norm, but you guys grew up in a very different world; how would you talk to your friends if you didn’t use Snapchat?” Wheeler said. “Isn’t it also that culture of hacking, to see if you can bring down Dropbox? Isn’t that a badge of honor, like, ‘Hey! I took down those.’” Her final words on the matter were those of reprove towards companies that have suffered such massive security breaches. “I think that if there are no consequences, that will continue,” Wheeler said. “ I think the community at large deserves an apology.”
he Fourth Amendment guarantees “the right of people to be secure in their persons,” thus protecting individual privacy and preventing an invasion of personal information. By this logic, unauthorized hacking is a direct violation of the Constitution. But one must look at the definition of “hacking” before drawing judgment. Privacy has been a prominent topic of discussion throughout the nation lately, especially after recent incidents such as the Snapchat hacks and NSA leaks. The issue’s relevance inflated when it was localized to our own community with the Harker Homework Management System (HHMS) and PCR hacks over the course of the past year. Director of Instructional Technology Daniel Hudkins differentiates between “cracking” and “hacking.” “Hacking at one time was a largely pejorative word. But hacking can be creative and taking a tool that can be used for purpose A and using it for purpose B,” he said. “Cracking is where you get people making unauthorized use of tools for less than honorable purposes.” According to Hudkins, there were three notable cracking incidents in our own community over the past year: an HHMS hack, a phone download that rerouted wireless traffic and slowed down WiFi on campus, and a faculty impersonation on PCR. Hudkins expressed belief that the final incident was the most “worrisome.” “It’s an erosion of trust,” Hudkins says. “Every community, if it’s going to be successful, relies on shared values and mutual trust. Every time that trust is eroded, the community gets a little weaker, and that’s sad.” Upper School Division Head Butch Keller has noticed a significant decrease in script download issues that slow the campus-wide Internet ever since Hudkins spoke to the student body during a school meeting. “One of the things about this community is the self-police,” he said. “Peripheral issues just went away. When it comes to someone interfering with your environment or academics, you guys don’t tolerate that.” Hudkins encourages students to come forth with any security issues they find with school-related sites rather than exploiting them for pranking purposes.
The Winged Post: Would you call yourself a hacker? NS: I don’t know. I feel like some people think that’s like a bad term, you know? So I guess it’s hard to say. I guess in some sense, yes, but not to the point where I’m doing bad stuff all the time. WP: How would you describe your experience hacking? NS: For me, it’s like the door was open and I walked in, not like I picked the lock and walked in. WP: What are your ethical boundaries when it comes to hacking? NS: I guess if it’s harmless and doesn’t hurt anyone in a negative manner, I don’t see the problem with it. Changing grades, that sort of thing, is definitely not okay in my mind. WP: What was your first hack? NS: I didn’t really do anything with a computer before sixth grade, and in 7th grade when I got my laptop, I sort of started exploring and figuring out what I could do. We had those restricted laptops and I reinstalled everything so I could have unrestricted access on it. WP: You’ve shared instructions on Facebook about how to access your schedule and things like that. NS: Yeah. That kind of thing I wouldn’t call hacking at all. It’s basically like the information was there, but there was just no link to the page. I would remember what it was like from the previous year, and I retraced my steps back there. WP: What could Harker do to improve their sites? NS: I think Harker should talk to their students more. There’s a lot of smart students who know some exploits and are afraid to report them, because they’re afraid they would be accused of using them.
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