FGS! That bloody kid! He's hacked into the bloody school computers!

[TheZeeTeam]

I got a call from my 13 year old son's school today. He was bored in French lab and decided to hack into the school system and close everyone else's computers. He's been given a 2 day in school suspension and a rest of the year ban on in school computers.

So, we've taken his computer here at home for a while and were thinking of inviting a local cop we know to talk to him about what happens to hackers in real life.

Any other ideas? How would you react to this kind of thing? Thank you!

[Nocomet]

You have to do something in French lessons and the teacher tends to notice if you fall asleep.

Sorry not helpful, but I'm sure we'd have done something naughty if we'd had computers to mess with in French.

[Travelledtheworld]

The school needs to tighten up on its network security procedures !

[TheZeeTeam]

They are tight! The school are mortified that he could do it. It was quite complex codes. But he LOVES complex codes. His brother is in the equivalent of the Lower 6th and him and his friends are impressed that DS2 even had the idea!

That's half the problem! I don't want him thinking this is cool (even if half of us secretly think it is).

[CointreauVersial]

That's quite impressive......(but don't tell him I said so).

[Alexis705]

Perhaps you could convince him to work on creating programs instead of hacking? There are lots of competitions available to create programs/apps in which he could win money/computers etc, he might be interested in some of those? My ds has a very good friend who is extremely good at programming and hacking (wins competitions in programming against uni students at age 12) and he does all that sort of thing.

[Innogen]

I'd be pointing him in the direction computer science at uni!

[AcrossthePond55]

Ha! My now 30 yr old son did the same thing in High School! After they beefed up security the school paid him (not much) to try to hack in again. He couldn't.

THAT wouldn't happen nowadays!

[anthropology]

School has already punished him, but you can help him understand how he can put his considerable skills to some good .rewiredstate.org/young-rewired-state

[twojumpingbeans]

Blimey! I'm also impressed.. Completely agree with looking at ways to harness his obvious skills in a more positive way.

[AClassyMove]

He is lucky another mnetters DS did the same and the police gave him a conviction.

[Optimist1]

Agree with anthropology here - you need to make him use his (considerable) powers for good!

[Kleinzeit]

Is there a CoderDojo in your area? This is the London one and there are others.

Anyone remember Oliver Wendell Jones (child hacker and juvenile mad scientist) from "Bloom County" - "you've been a bad bad bad bad and very clever boy"

[Catsmamma]

There was something on the news this morning....a mock "www is ending/banking systems/power supply" hacked and held to ransom. There's been a competition online and the top 40 are today in the Churchill War Rooms trying to sort it all out.

Sounds like something that might keep him engaged, so long as he wants to work for GCHQ

News Story Here

[sinningsaint]

Agree with previous posters try and find him somewhere he can put his knowledge in to use but maybe a casual chat with a cop may be a good idea as well. My DS1 is also a huge computer geek but luckily i think the worst he has ever done is put all the bibles he could find around the school in the fiction section of the library

[TheresAHedgehogInMyPocket]

I am impressed! But the school have punished him an d I echo others in turning his considerable skill to good use. Not sure how though!

[secretscwirrels]

AClassyMove I remember that thread, it's true he has got off very lightly.
A boy at DS2's school did the same. Not for malicious reasons but just because he could.IT department horrified and he was almost expelled.

[BatCrapCrazy]

A boy I teach (now year 11) hacked into the county council's website system and accessed the school closures page and edited it so that all the schools were closed!

[Floralnomad]

I also think he has got off lightly ,a friend of mines son and a friend hacked into the schools computer printing system so that every time something needed printing it got printed 100x the amount requested . He was about 1 month before his A levels , fortunately they allowed him to sit his exams but apart from that they were both expelled .

[ExitPursuedTheRoyalPrude]

He will make a fortune in cyber security. There was a feature on woman's hour thus week

[WeeSleekit]

Not sure i understand why there seems to be an element of admiration for what he's done. There wouldn't be the same 'ooh isn't he clever' undertone if he'd set fire to the school. Just because what he's done appears to have some form of 'skill' to it doesn't mean it's not vandalism.

[Kleinzeit]

Weesleekit Shutting off the computers is a lot less dangerous and a lot more easily fixed than setting a fire. Sense of proportion, please.

[Bearandcub]

Give him the project of writing up how the school could improve security including costings. Something dull but will make him think

[FairPhyllis]

I wouldn't draw the police's attention to it if I were you. He's lucky the school didn't go to the police in the first place.

[DealForTheKids]

This happened at my sixth form. College actually employed the guy who did it as a tech assistant and got him to tighten up security for them :) possibly harder as your DS is only 13 but any opportunity that they could do similar? How have school taken it?

I too am in the 'impressed but don't tell him camp' - the guy I know who did it is now raking in loads in tech security FYI...