Universities Weblog

Students have employed all sorts of tactics to change a grade they weren't pleased with: begging the professor for mercy, taking on extra credit, taking the class again. A few have gone beyond the usual techniques and employed drastic measures, as a student at the University of Utah recently did.

From the Daily Herald: A University of Utah student has been indicted on federal charges of hacking into one of his professor's computers in an attempt to change a failing grade, the U.S. attorney's office said.

You Li, a 21-year-old student from China, was charged in a federal indictment Friday with accessing a protected computer in an attempt at fraud and obtaining information from a protected computer. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Yikes, that's quite a penalty.

What do you think? Should all computer hackers be given the same sentence, regardless of the severity of their intentions? Should an attempt to change a grade be equated with an attempt to compromise national security, for instance, or to steal someone's financial identity? Is the penalty too harsh, or should everyone be treated the same?

(Photo Source: Pivot)

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