<p>Do you remember the furor a few years ago when college students hacked in to some mba program websites (I can't remember if it was MIT or Harvard) to determine if they had been accepted or not before the letters went out?</p>
<p>The reason I raise this issue is that a lot of students seem to be doing the same thing to learn their ACT and SAT scores before they are released. For example, in the ACT forum here on CC a lot of kids are discussing a "hack" they have used to gain early access to their score reports before ACT posts them.</p>
<p>If ACT should catch these kids, do you think it will have any repercussions? Should it have any repercussions?</p>
<p>My son took the ACT in June and was tempted to try the "hack" discussed by the students in the ACT forum, but I told him not to because of possible repercussions if he is caught (and with his luck...he would be the one caught and made an example of...)--and the scores will be up tomorrow anyway.</p>
<p>"Good things come to those who wait" (a mom-homile for today)</p>
<p>Or said differently, like Waylon Jennings,
" Bad news travels like wildfire
Good news travels slow
People call me wildfire
Everywhere I go,
'cause I'm bad news, everywhere I go.." </p>
<p>Stay the course, mom. Your advice is good. It's life training, too. He'll have to learn to sit on his hands waiting for exam results, signatures on important documents, and so much more. The die is cast. He should wait and not risk ANYTHING today, although we can all understand how anxious he is to know.</p>
<p>Do you remember if anything ever happened to the students who hacked in to the admissions results a few years ago?</p>
<p>I wonder if there will be any repercussions if ACT catches on the the fact that kids have gotten in to their website and obtained their results early. I also wonder if the kids who got their scores early also have figured out how to alter scores.</p>
<p>Is it really a hack?I looked at the info and how it is done and the info is already on the site, you just have to re-enter your personal test number which you already have. I don't know...I'm not really a computer expert so I don't really know what constitutes hacking in to something!!!</p>
<p>I've read the posts and don't think it's a true "hack" so that kids are getting "into the system" in such a way that they have control over the information. The use of the term "hack" is abit erroneous. They have just figured out the web address for their scores before the link is activated maybe 24 hours early. It didn't bother me at all and if it bothers ACT enough I'm sure they can change their posting methadology. But I'm impressed that you told your son not to peek and he didn't - it shows his respect for his parents.</p>
<p>I took a look at the thread to see what they've been up to and technically this isn't a hack. They're simply accessing information that's been, perhaps accidentally, made openly available on the server. It does however highlight that the ACT IT folks haven't exactly taken reasonable, or for that matter any, security measures to prevent such early access.</p>
<p>I agree that there are ethics issues regarding if it's ethical for someone to take a peek once they've been told that the information has been made available early via a potential lack of judgment on behalf of the ACT folks.</p>
<p>I'm glad the ACT folks took it seriously, because even if this particular "hack" is harmless, the fact that it was possible might indicate that their overall security is not good enough to prevent nefarious access to their system.</p>
<p>When I called the College Board folks about cheating on AP tests at our high school, they were less than interested and helpful. I found that disturbing. So bravo to ACT!</p>
<p>In March/April 2005, students hacked in to the websites at Harvard, Duke, Stanford and MIT MBA programs to learn their admissions results before they were released. The schools revoked the admissions of the students who had hacked their way in to the admissions websites on the grounds that the students' ethics were questionable at best.</p>
<p>I'm not sure that the kids here on CC who did similar are aware of this history. If ACT tracks them down, this could add a whole new layer of anxiety on these kids--because ACT has a record of the schools to which it was requested the scores to be sent, as well as the high schools which would be notified.</p>
<p>It seems surprising that parents are employing the hack as well. Students might be too eager for scores to foresee possible ramifications of their actions, but where is the adult example?</p>
<p>As far as ACT is concerned, we "believe" that the kids aren't hacking, they "say" they're just looking, but if the ACT has a "back door" to see the scores, what makes anyone believe that one of these kids won't exploit that door and make some changes to scores? Or that it hasn't happened already (which may be how the back door was found)? It's not that far-fetched.</p>
<p>I'm glad that ACT is trying to plug the holes in its system. Maybe they'll look for others now, too.</p>
<p>I guess we'll see how serious they are. According to the posts today the kids can still access scores so nothing has been done yet.</p>
<p>And GK09...I just thought it was funny and ironic that someone with a user name of GoodKarma is the one who turned in the flaw! Must be my warped sense of humor!</p>
<p>And has anyone yet posted on the Kids' thread to encourage them not to use the so called "hack"?</p>
<p>The ACT's website is not where scores are graded nor decided upon. It is simply a medium onto which scores are uploaded. Therefore, this glitch (it is not, in fact, a hack) cannot in any way lead to the altering of scores.</p>
<p>To hack means to "devise or modify (a computer program), usually skillfully."</p>
<p>Nothing is being modified here. The case regarding the students who hacked into school systems to find out whether or not they were admitted stands in stark contrast; they MODIFIED the system.</p>
<p>On most "secure" sites, when you go to view information before it is open to the public, you click on a link such as "View Scores," but the link is purposely made to lead to a page that explains that the scores are not yet available. The actual URL of the page with the scores is not revealed or remains deactivated until the set date. But in this case, the URL is not deactivated. All it took was for somebody to manually put it in to their address bar. There is no breaching of security going on here.</p>
<p>this is ridiculous. there is no comparison to these kids checking their scores early to kids actually HACKING a schools website. this is just a glitch and it's ACT's fault. i can't believe you would think this is illegal when you see scores early that you can see for free. there is no benefit of seeing scores early (2 or 3 days if that counts as early). these kids are just anxious to see their scores what's the harm? </p>
<p>bunch of BS. there is no ethical consideration here.</p>
<p>I think what bothers me is the ethics of it...just the sense that the kids feel they are "getting away" with something. I always told my kids when they were young that the very fact that you don't want some one else to know what you are doing is a good reason not to do it in the first place... you know it's wrong or you wouldn't be making the effort to be secretive about it.</p>
<p>I I put a warning on the ACT forum but I doubt it will deter too many of the students, since a lot of them seem to think that the only thing wrong with cheating is getting caught.</p>
<p>IMO, "Goodkarma" is bluffing and never called (or reached a sec'y/receptionist at best). This "back door" approach has been there for a while. If the ACT folks wanted to do something about it, they would have done so already.</p>
<p>I actually think this is pretty similar the the situation with the b-schools admission decisions in 2005--no one changed the results when they accessed the websites, but the schools rejected/revoked the students who gained early access to the admissions decisions.</p>