Computer conundrum

Imagine waking up in the morning to find out from the Web that classes were canceled due to snow -- or even worse because of a terrorist attack.\nThis is exactly the kind of problems with which IU must deal but is sadly choosing to ignore.\nLast week, a student hacked into the IU emergency Web site, http://emergency.iub.edu, and put IU on a snow emergency. The hacker also urged students to contact their local congressman to have classes canceled.\nSophomore Ben Brodsky claims to be the hacker who broke into the site, but according to his story, no real effort was needed. Although he says he has extensive computer knowledge, all he needed to do to gain posting access to the site was to click on an icon and sign in with his user ID and password given to all IU students and faculty.\nSimple, eh?\nBut of all the pranks to pull, a simple snow emergency seems the least likely. Why not just cancel classes?\nBrodsky told the Indiana Daily Student he didn't want to get into too much trouble. He just wanted to alert the University that their site was insecure.\n"I could have put IU on a red terrorist alert, but I didn't," he said.\nBrodsky is completely right. Whether or not he actually he is the hacker, whoever broke into the site could have done something way more serious.\nNaturally, one would assume IU's reaction would be to increase network security to prevent another breach from occurring, but unfortunately, the University has its priorities mixed up. IU Spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said the University was not reviewing any of its network security policies. \nInstead of upping the security, it has focused on punishment for those who have broken into the site. \nNow, we realize changing information on IU's emergency site isn't very ethical or even a good idea, but when all you have to do to post on the site is to use your IU log-in and password, then the punishment should not be that severe. Some might even argue that the hacker didn't even "break in" to the site, since IU's security was so flawed. IU needs to fess up to its problems instead of trying to shift the blame onto the student.\nIU is lucky it was only a minor incident that brought this weakness to its attention. Next time, it might not be as easy as resetting a Web site. If any facet of the campus is more vulnerable than it should be, every effort should be made to ensure it gets protected.