, The Register 2004-11-01
A pair of Oxford University students have been suspended over a little hacking project they undertook to "expose" security flaws in the University's IT system.
Systems were not "hacked" but "snooped on", according to University techies, who criticised the duo's reporting as inaccurate and "sensationalist". Oxford dons were also angry with the student hacks' actions and instigated disciplinary proceedings.
Last week Oxford's Court of Summary Jurisdiction suspended Foster, 20, from the university until May 2005. Waite, 21, was banned from university buildings and facilities (a process known as rustication) for a lesser period of one term. He's been suspended from the second year of his history course until January, the BBC reports.
Both undergraduates admitted the various charges (unauthorised access, violating users' privacy and wasting staff time) against them. Foster, a politics, philosophy and economics student, who has since become editor of Oxford Student, and Waite have both vowed to appeal their sentences. ®
