Close your eyes and imagine what a juvenile cybercriminal looks like. You鈥檙e probably picturing a super-tech-savvy, loner teen typing away in a basement.
But new research concludes that many young hackers tend to have the same qualities as other children who engage in more traditional troubled behavior out in the real, offline world.
What鈥檚 more, male and female students have different motivations for hacking.
Society has the idea that 鈥渁 hacker is a lone kind of sophisticated computer user,鈥� said Thomas Holt, a cybercrime expert at Michigan State University. He is the lead author of the study, which examines cybersecurity crimes within a broader pool of worldwide data on juvenile delinquency collected in 2007, the most recent year the data could be analyzed.
鈥淏ut in reality,鈥� he said, 鈥渉acking doesn鈥檛 have to be that complicated. It can be guessing someone鈥檚 password to get into their email account. The entry points appear somewhat similar to traditional delinquency, which tells us that hacking may not be as unique as it鈥檚 often thought to be.鈥�
That means when principals, teachers, and superintendents are trying to figure out which of their students may have the potential to get into trouble online, they may want to focus on not only the tech-savvy youths but also the kids who are getting into problematic behaviors at an early age, Holt said.
School district chief technology officers definitely grapple with the issue of student hackers, said Amy McLaughlin, the cybersecurity director for the Consortium for School Networking. And it鈥檚 not necessarily a new phenomenon, she added, referencing 鈥淔erris Bueller鈥檚 Day Off,鈥� a 1986 movie in which the title character illegally enters his school鈥檚 computer system to change his attendance record.
鈥淎 lot of the time it鈥檚 not about being super clever, it鈥檚 about being opportunistic,鈥� she said.
So if a student happens to be a teacher鈥檚 aide during a free period, he or she may have access to a password and username and be tempted to use it鈥攐r be pressured by a peer to do so, McLaughlin said. What鈥檚 more, there are times when a student might have only intended to have a little fun and break into a school鈥檚 network without realizing the breadth of what they鈥檝e gotten access to or what the consequence might be for changing or probing sensitive information.
鈥淪tudents don鈥檛 necessarily have all of the decisionmaking capabilities of an adult,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why they are still in school.鈥�
Boys vs. Girls
Indeed, low self-control is one of the biggest predictive factors in whether students are likely to turn to cybercrime, Holt and his fellow researchers found. That was true for both boys and girls in the study.
Boys are more likely to become hackers if they use drugs, spend a lot of time watching television, or play a ton of computer games. And girls are more likely to turn to cybercrime if they hang out with peers who shoplift or engage in other types of petty theft. They鈥檙e also more likely to become hackers if their friends like to frighten or intimidate people 鈥渏ust for fun.鈥�
That means, for girls, the pathway to cybercrime is 鈥渕uch more about their peer group,鈥� Holt said.
Boys are also more likely to hack if they have their own computer or smartphone. That kind of access to technology doesn鈥檛 matter as much for girls, the study found. And in general, boys are more likely to turn to cybercrime than their female counterparts.
鈥淭here may be something unique about being a boy and having access [to a computer] that isn鈥檛 necessarily there for girls,鈥� Holt said. That could be because, back in the 1980s and 1990s, using a computer was considered 鈥渂oy-centric鈥� behavior, he said.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen a very small representation of women in the hacker community, and in computer science,鈥� said Holt. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a slow sea change.鈥�
McLaughlin agreed that educators shouldn鈥檛 dismiss the potential of girls to engage in cybercrime. There 鈥渢ends to be a bias that hacking is male activity, and it really isn鈥檛,鈥� she said. Girls 鈥渁re just as capable and clever鈥� and, in fact, more likely to 鈥渇ly under the wire鈥� because of the stereotype that they won鈥檛 get into trouble online.
Environmental Factors
Other risk factors are environmental, Holt鈥檚 study found. Student hackers of both sexes are more likely to have parents who are of higher socioeconomic status (meaning the family owns their own vehicle). Or the kids may have had additional involvement in piracy, for instance, obtaining movies online illegally.
Hackers may also be more likely to live in small towns or rural areas where there are fewer activities and less structured time, the study suggests.
Of course, students with little self-control might not be so great at cybercrimes that require a lot of time and effort beyond just guessing a password or finding one written on a Post-It note.
鈥淭hey may hack; they may not be very good at it,鈥� Holt said. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e a low-impulse-control kid, you鈥檙e not going to sit around and figure it out. Kids with high self-control might be more patient鈥� and able to pull off more complicated cybercrimes.
One example of a disruptive cybercrime that didn鈥檛 take much technical know-how to pull off: A 15-year-old high school student in Riverside, Calif., could face potential felony charges after he tricked teachers into handing over login details and passwords and then used that information to change his and other students鈥� grades, The Press-Enterprise reported.
The student created an account that made it seem as though his emails were coming from a ranking school official. In the messages, he asked teachers for their usernames and passwords for school computer systems. Once the educators turned over the information, the student changed his own grades. He also lowered others鈥� grades and added comments like 鈥渟leeps in class,鈥� the paper reported. His peers noticed the changes and alerted school officials.
So what can schools do to help mitigate the risks from teenage hackers? Holt suggests educating all students about the issue.
鈥淐yberawareness campaigns become important,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ome of these simple hacks may be targeting their classmates.鈥�
What鈥檚 more, there鈥檚 鈥渧alue in teaching kids that cybercrime will get you in trouble, and here鈥檚 what you can do to protect yourself.鈥�
That advice goes for school staff, too, McLaughlin said. Chief technology officers should monitor their systems for unusual behavior, so they can respond quickly, she said. And they need to train staff to secure their passwords and lock their computers when they aren鈥檛 in use.
Then there鈥檚 the big question of what, exactly, to do with students who are accused of hacking their school鈥檚 computers or other types of cybercrimes, especially of the more sophisticated variety. Cybersecurity experts urge schools to try to redirect these students to healthier and more productive online activities at any early age.
Danielle Santos, the program manager for the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, suggested that schools emphasize 鈥渢he ethics piece鈥� of hacking early on in students鈥� educational careers. And she said schools should provide would-be juvenile cybercriminals with safe outlets to 鈥渆xplore that area of technical expertise that they already have and want to develop.鈥�
Schools should connect students who seem to have an interest in cybersecurity with mentors鈥攊n higher education and the workforce鈥攚ho might be able to show them how they could channel their interest into a career, she said.
In fact, experts who study the future of work and technology trends expect that teenage hacking could continue to be a problem in the future. How big a problem? A recent report from the Cognizant Center for the Future of Work suggests that there will be a need for more 鈥渏uvenile-crime rehabilitation counselors,鈥� who try to persuade student cyberhackers to put their technology talent to more productive use, in the not-too-distant future.
鈥淔or any student that is identified as engaging in those behaviors, there鈥檚 an opportunity to help that student make different decisions,鈥� McLaughlin said. After all, cybersecurity professionals, with high-paying jobs, are trying to figure out how hackers think so they can thwart them. Students need to learn that 鈥渢hey can leverage and use those skills in a positive and legal way.鈥�
