Remember when you would fake being sick or someone would pull a fire alarm to ditch class? Allow me to introduce you to the newest generation, for whom launching cyber-attacks against schools is now a thing. This week news broke that a 16-year-old Japanese teen was charged with taking down more than 400 school websites. The crime reportedly happened back in November when the teen was just 15. He apparently wanted to make his teachers look incompetent because he felt that he wasn't allowed to express himself. What's worse than a teenaged ''know-it-all"? One that knows how to hack into a network and take down hundreds of websites!
This isn't just an isolated case. Check out these cases that researchers at Radware compiled.
- Japan - A 16-year-old student in Japan downloaded an attack tool to his desktop and carried out an attack on the Osaka Board of Education server, resulting in 444 elementary, junior highs, and high school websites being knocked offline. He was monitoring the attack from his cellphone and expressed that he wanted to join Anonymous, the worldwide hacktivist group. This student ultimately launched this attack due to his frustration with his school teachers.
- Australia - A 15-year-old in Australia is facing 10 years in jail for launching one of the largest DDoS attacks in the country's history. The attack was so large that around 10,000 customers for the local ISP NuSkope were also affected. This attack was directed at a number of targets including Reynella East College. The attacker said that he launched the assault as a test.
- India - A college in India was hacked and defaced by a group named Pak Cyber Attacker. The attack was launched against both the official website of Utkal University and the e-admissions page. At the time of this report, the e-admissions page was not accessible.
- Canada - A Vancouver high school suffered network service degradation following a student successfully compromising his/her teacher's email account and began spamming out emails in bulks to a list of over 50,000 email addresses. This action of spamming slowed down the school's network operation. The student was expelled.
- England - Janet, a research and educational network in England, has been the victim of several denial-of-service attacks over the last year. Janet connects the networks of 19 different regional universities. The sophisticated attacked rippled through these networks, resulting in degradation to network services and performance.
- United States - Rutgers, Arizona State University, and University of Georgia have all experienced denial-of-service attacks over the last year. These attacks have caused a number of issues resulting in delays during registration and final exams. Often times these attacks are so large that they completely saturate the network, preventing students from being able to connect to the network.
The Darknet: school hacks for hire
If a student is not a hacker, it doesn't necessarily matter. You can now buy anything on the Darknet, including cyber-attacks aimed at schools. Radware researchers found that criminals are also selling "grade changing" services on the underground market. Students launching the attacks are apparently motivated by... well, typical teenaged dilemmas.
"In most cases, it's either a student looking to delay a test, manipulate the registration process or a personal attack by a student or staff member in aggression towards the school," a Radware blog post reads.
A hormonal teenager with an attitude problem is frustrating enough, but one who has the ability to take down entire networks is terrifying. While schools unquestionably suffer in the act of a cyber-attack, students may not realize the severity of their actions. News flash, guys: You don't get detention for launching cyber-attacks; instead, you get criminal charges and maybe some jail time.