h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I accidentally deleted this one. Here it is, from December 18 2000.

I see I haven't written an Opinion in a while, but not too many weird things have been happening to me all that lately. Until now, of course.

I'll fill you in on the background details: My school board has been amalgamated with a nearby school board. The new board's administration decided to send a board-sanctioned guy in to adminstrate our school network. At first, I didn't notice that much of a change. I was enjoying my two computer classes. Then the printers stopped working properly - this guy (I won't use his name) was re-building our network. That's okay, because it's been years since our network was built and there are new network construction standards. In fact, I'm learning them - I'm helping my school pilot-test Cisco Systems' CCNA class in high schools. We're one of 3 in the province, I think. Either way, I figure all our little network problems will be solved in a few days; the guy seems competent in his work. Not so. Our network has slowed to a crawl (probably because it's one big collision domain) and this guy originally blamed it on the Linux machine in my 4th period class, run by a guy that's also in my 3rd period CCNA class. We've been fasttracking through Semester One (we're both done) and we're both into network security, hacking (in the sense that we're damn good with computers, not the pejorative sense that the media seems to love) and a little bit of programming on the side. Our new I/T tech discovered that by removing my 4th period class from the network, everything speeds up.. so he promptly placed the blame on the Linux server. Idiot. It's just because of sheer data volume on the network. It's been slow since I've gone to the school, but not THIS slow. Probably because we have a nice 'new' lab of Apple Macintrash Quadras attached to the network. Gotta love AppleTalk, sending out broadcast packets like diarrhea. Oh yeah. The board also made him reinstate the 'Bess' filtering software. I can understand using it for grade schoolers, the ones who are tempted to go into what they shouldn't the second the teacher's back is turned, but come on, we're high schoolers - we know better, and we know we're being monitored in some light. Bess slows down Web access to the point where a snail could fetch each individual bit faster, and cuts off about three quarters of the internet.. and about a third of that is completely legit stuff. Now half the school hates him. Including the teachers.

Fairly recently, somebody in town, using a free internet account, cracked our school's server - and, apparently, the public board's server. I first heard about it when my 4th period teacher told me about it and to keep quiet about it. So I did. The provincial police (and I've heard the RCMP too) got on the case straightaway, to find the wee boogar who did it.. I thought nothing of it. I didn't do it. I don't know who did it. Why should I really care?

Well, the other day (Dec 15/2K) I came home and found a message on the answering machine. Not an unusual event - just an unusual caller. A police officer. Asking for me. To call him back. So I do. He says he's been told about my 'technical expertise' and wants to ask me a few questions about it and about the two cracks (He used the terms 'hacks'. I still intend to 'straighten him out' regarding it. As a member of the Hacker Anti-Defamation League, I can't stand for people misrepresenting hackers.), so I answer them. He came right out and asked me, 'Did you do it?' and I told him the truth - 'No. I don't know how, and even if I did, I wouldn't.' That simple.

However, I was perturbed about why he was calling me. Apparently my school's I/T tech forwarded him an email I barely remember sending, from school, that involved my email address and something about me knowing how to circumvent my pay ISP's access-ban due to dual logins. At the time of writing, the ban was on, and I was probably bitching to somebody about it. However, I know that I didn't say that I could circumvent it. I can't. If I would have done anything, it would have been logging into their Telnet server and changing the password (what they wanted done) from school.. but that wouldn't have been circumvention, that would have been playing by their rules. And thirdly, I wouldn't have been stupid enough to say something like that in a school email. I know they can be read. I was already suspecting that the I/T guy grepped through them for keywords anyway. And besides, there's no trace of this message in my MailBox. That would mean I deleted it. You'd think that once you delete a message, it's gone for good, right? Not with FirstClass, obviously. Looks like he went through old mail, trying to find a clue.. and noticed the similarity between my name, my email address, and the name of their prime suspect.. an odd, happenstance coincidence, but it made him think I was involved.. or there was a nick involved. Either way, he must have thought I was involved and forwarded this letter to the police.. and at some point, I know it's been altered or taken out of context, as I told you earlier about my 'policies' on my ISP and abilities of circumvention.

Our I/T guy is taking complete advantage over his little position of control. It's really uncool. True, most people in his position would do the same, but the degree he's taking it to? Nobody's impressed. While it is human nature to take advantage of positions of control, I'll admit, he's got to realise how many people want him dethroned. My 4th period teacher, my 'buddy' from 3rd and 4th (Linux machine administrator) and I have thought about how things would work once he's gone.. because he may end up leaving.. and we're thinking that my classmate and I could probably easily take over. I'll admit, I keep having daydreams about what that would be like, and to be honest, my daydreams are power-tripping. So yeah, it's definitely human nature to power-trip, especially when it's I/T technicians and administrators (hell, look at my ISP - they wouldn't even just say 'okay, we'll bill you for two accounts then') but the good techs realise what they're starting to do and stop. But our I/T guy isn't. Maybe because he's only Microsoft certified. And not CCNA.

A warning to everyone reading - power's great, in moderation. Don't step over your bounds and into Naziism.