By Beacon Editorial Board
Word travels quickly on a campus this size, so it's quite likely that most of you have already heard about Michael Maass, or a least have heard about "the kid who was suspended for hacking into the computer system." Maass, a junior Air Force ROTC cadet and a computer science major, had noticed major flaws, in his opinion, with Cisco Clean Access and decided to put together a program to bring this to the school's attention.
The only real problem for Maass in putting his University education to use and designing this intelligent program was the over-the-top consequence of his actions. Maass' good intentions were met with a sharp, accusatory letter from top University officials, and students who were only remotely connected with Maass' program were cut out of their e-mail for weeks.
While we agree that Maass may not have made the best choices in exposing the vulnerabilities by posting them on a facebook.com group (Cisco Clean Access Stole My Megahertz), we disagree with the manner in which he was reprimanded.
Maass did not use his skills to commit actual harm to the network.By suspending Maass for an entire year and contacting potential recipients of the program's source code, the University overlooked the fact that Maass was providing a valuable service to the University in helping to point out flaws and better the network's security system.
Maass displayed the same curiosity and innovative spirit that drive this nation's top programmers to create better, safer and more solid systems.
Indeed, the network security system's negative effect on the performance of students' computers was the reason behind Maass' endeavors.
One of the reasons many choose to go to this University is the genuine concern for the student, and the extent to which the school reaches out to individual students' needs. Taking time to see the individual situation at hand instead of making a point with harsh disciplinary consequences would have fit this model. To us, and to many of the students, the point has rung loud and clear: Internet security has begun to matter more than student security.
