This news story is quite sad. A high school student discovers that enough people pressing the F5 key while on the school website causes a Denial of Service (DoS) condition, perhaps even on the school’s “system”. Alas, being a typical high school kid, he tells all his friends to give it a try at the same time.

What’s the response?

“It’s a crime and it is important we take this seriously … especially for school officials … it could have done a tremendous amount of damage,” said Canton City Prosecutor Frank Fronchione.

Ok, but let’s be Frank about this. I bet the prosecutor probably broke the speed limit on the way to work that morning, which also could have done a tremendous amount of damage, but mild speeding has not been established as a felony (yet?). So what’s the “reasonable” level of damage and the “reasonable” response? Can Frank explain the risk calculation that has been used to suggest that a “tremendous amount of damage” is even remotely likely, or that the remediation of the hole would cause duress? I’m not defending the student, just wondering if some of the key details of the story are missing.

My guess, based on the over-reaction of the school to the attack, is that this is one of those cases where the kid was already marked as some kind of trouble-maker with a prior record and the school has just been looking for the right function to get him out of their hair. But the details are sketchy and prosecutors are known to blow things out of proportion in order to establish a favorable bargaining position for their client.

Apologies for the puns…