Last thing needed atm...teens 'hacking' project

[Orangeblossom78]

Ds (15) was given some kind of cyber project to do at home and now school has been in touch to say he has said he has done a project on accessing the school door security system and has found out a teacher's wifi password. Want me to assure them he won't do this again.

I have spoken to him and he has apologised. the tone of his project was not good, to be honest, think he was trying to e a 'hacker' or something

But then part of me thinks why did the school give such a project as well and maybe they need to discuss ethics etc with the teens also as part of that.

It's not needed at the moment and feeling a bit fed up with it all. Wondered if anyone else had experienced anything similar

PS there is no doors system it was just something he made up

He made up a doors system that he hacked into? Then how did he find out a teachers WiFi password? Im a lil lost

Surely if he did find out a teachers WiFi password they should be thanking him for pointing out this flaw in their security, if a kid could find it a nefarious adult would do worse,

I feel like the difference between a hacker and a digital security expert is very small, it's their job to try to 'hack' into companies to show how good or bad their security is and then offer to fix it, so maybe your child has a bright future in an industry that is moving forward if he did manage to hack into his school system

It was something about a system of card swiping to access RL doors i think. they had been given a 'cyber project' to work on while at home apparently

he says Wifi stuff is publicly available. The teacher did say not sure whether to thank him for this info or not. I'm still a bit confused. I said I'd discuss the ethics of the project with him.

I wonder if things would be different if they were in school. They might have discussed it with him instead of me perhaps.

I'd say the school should improve their security. Why give kids projects like this? They are security savvy. He has highlighted a flaw in their security; they should be embarrassed and get on with fixing it.

Hah I hope he does follow a career in cyber security, he sounds switched on. Obviously from the schools perspective it's not great, but it's impressive. Is it something he is interested in pursuing as a job in the future? Has he applied to any summer programmes? It's not uncommon to be set projects like that, just unfortunate to the school that their security isn't up to scratch. The school should take on board the importance as you say of explaining ethics as well, but honestly you should be proud in an odd way.

I thunk it was the language used they didn't like, and I agree. However, he was thinking of it as a project and being a 'hacker'. he said 'you wouldn't be able to stop me' (about the doors project) which I think concerned them. So, I had a chat with him about that. But he said it was in the context of the project...not sure. Anyway I agreed with the school it is good to discuss ethics etc. they want me to assure them he won't do this kind of stuff again

Think, sorry. A bit tired here.