Gov't Extra Credit
Extra Credit to the first 35 entries who comment in 50 words or less their thoughts on what this bright, young man did. Service to his country? Felon? .......?????
Student Unleaches Uproar With Bogus Boarding Passes
posted by erdecker @ 2:55 PM
17 comments
17 Comments:
I think that this man helped his country by showing us all a major flaw in the system. That flaw could have made it easy for terrorists to get into the country, but there are many other ways to show the government that there are problems. It was very dangerous to put up that website. He should have tryed to contact the government instead of taking such drastic actions.
-Mandy
I think that though the cause was admirable, the process which he chose was completely wrong. Bring the idea to the mention of the authorities, don't put the program up for use. That could only end badly. Not a jail sentence surely, but really, what was he thinking?
Common sense, especially where danger is concerned, should always be the first course. If he wasn't listened to, then hey, fair game on the web.
Stupidity pretty much describes what he did. If you find a problem with security, probably not the best idea to post it on the internet for everyone to use; if he was smart enough to figure out how to create a fake boarding pass, he is smart enough how to get results on the issue.
It is funny though how the article spelled out how a person on the no fly list could use the fake boarding pass to their advantage.
I think that Soghoian did America a favor because if he cam name a fake pass so can other people and it could present a real problem for us with terrorists later. I am actually surprised that it hasn't yet. Well maybe it has and we just don't know yet. But he brought to our attention a legit problem that needed to be worked on.
He could have done it in another way but this way made the most bang. If he had done it in another way then it most likely would not have gotten as much media and people would merely glance at it in passing.
Uh I have typing issues. Whoops! Sorry.
Everyone seems to think that Soghoian drew attention to this problem in the wrong way. However, it takes a lot to draw attention to important issues; Schneier had written about this problem back in 2003, so I would argue that this was the only way to get the necessary attention.
Good intention, bad execution. Soghoian may have been doing a service, but he should have the common sense to know the potential the website held for misuse and opposition. Even if they weren't guarenteed to work, instructions to make a boarding pass shouldn't have been made available to the public.
I can't help but wonder what he thought would happen once he did this. Who did he want to highlight the problem to: the government or the people? Perhaps he thought it would take the voice of more than one individual to force any change. It's intent is admirable, yet the action was contributing to the problem he hoped to stop. However, seeing as it's something the government chose to look over previously, they too should pay for their mistake. I believe Soghoian should recieve some penalties, though not jail time.
Many people have broken the law for just causes and have been admired for it. Where would we be if Rosa Parks had not sat at the front of the bus. As Arij pointed out this was just common knowledge, and the article pointed out that this issue had been brought up in other forms of media before. Therefore, I do not think that Bruce Schneier was being very patriotic by trying to get his message across in a different way, even though he had break a law to do it. "Disset is the highest form of patriotism."
Chris had good intentions, but his actions were lousy. If Chris is smart enough as to come up with a means to warn the gov't of what could happen, then I think he is smart enough to come up with a better means to execute his ideas.
Yes, what Chris did was foolish, but if he already removed the information from his web site, what is the point of the government taking his computers?
Yea, what chris did was necessary to bring the flaw in the security to peoples attention, but it was also against the law, and therefore he must go to jail. I say it was a necessary action because Bruce Schneier wrote about the flaw way back in 2003, but nothing was done due to the problems with american beurocracy. Hundreds of politicians cant do anything about it, but 1 college student can, i find that pathetic. Polotics is way to involved in national security, we need to separate the two since they cant seem to work together.
Politics is the root of all evil.
Aaron
Christopher did what he thought needed to be done, and though it was effective, was againast the law and he should be punished. However, I think that anything more than the minimum punishment for this crime would be unfair to him. What he did was useful, and hopefully will open the eys of some of the people in positions to stop similar incidents from happening in the future.
Soghoian learned his lesson; he doesn’t need jail. He should have known better during the paranoia from war than to outlet security risk.
I also didn’t have my pass EVEN LOOKED at coming INTO AMERICA = REAL issue! This generator shared a real-life illustration.
If our class is a sample, about 1/17 people don’t have boarding passes even looked at.
(60 words is as little as I could manage)
I don't necessarily agree that he went about it in the wrong way. What else might a normal American college student do to draw this much attention to an important issue? I think a different means about it wouldn't have resulted in so much publicity and awareness. Good job to him, I say, for bringing this to the forefront and not being afraid to do so.
As many people already commented, there were many alternatives Soghoian could have tried before putting this on his website. Perhaps he thought they would not be effective, which makes me wonder if he 1-was just causually trying to express his thoughts or 2-if he really felt strongly about it. If he truly felt strongly about this issue, I wonder what made him think this was the best way to make his point known...
I don’t think that Christopher Soghoian should be arrested for what he did. I also do not believe there is a better way to “point out” the problem that he saw. I think it is one of those things that people have to see to believe....its definitely a service to his country.
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