The Tampa Bay Times recently reported on a 14-year-old, eighth grader in Florida, Domanik Green, who was charged with a felony for “hacking” his teacher’s computer. The “hacking” in this instance was using a widely known password to change the desktop background of his teacher’s computer with an image of two men kissing. The outrage of being charged with a felony for what essentially amounts to a misguided prank should be familiar to those who follow how computer crimes are handled by our justice system.

Usually, when it comes to bad laws related to computer hacking, or unauthorized access, the focus is the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). However, this instance highlights that many states have their own version of the federal statute, with their own overbroad and insensible language, including Florida.

In fact, the Florida statute is even harsher than the CFAA. A lowest level offense under CFAA (1030(c)(2)(A)) is a misdemeanor, but in Florida, the lowest level offense (815.06(2)(A)) is a felony. Furthermore, the Florida statute also neglects to define what “authorized” or “unauthorized” means, and under these facts a reasonable person may think they are authorized if the passwords had been widely used by students.

Students who are looking to attend St. Petersburg College and pursue a course of study in the Information Technology field, can benefit greatly from programs such as the IT Security or Programming Associate in Science degrees or Certificates.

“To protect systems from malicious software, one needs to understand how the software is coded,” said Brad Yourth, Professor of SPC’s College of Computer & Information Technology (CCIT).

He strongly believes that this article and the ones that follow in the series would definitely drive students toward the IT security program in the near future.