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Inmate cripples prison systems
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 30th September 2009
Ranby Prison might think twice before trusting its inmates following an attempt by a convicted cyber-criminal to lock the prison's computer system.
Despite this, common sense appears to have fallen by the wayside with the news that a credit card fraudster serving six years in prison for stealing approximately £6.5 million over the Internet using forged credit card details was hired by prison bosses to help create an internal TV station that would run over the Ranby Prison network.
According to the Mirror - via Softpedia - Douglas Havard "hacked into the system's hard drive" before setting up "a series of passwords so no one else could get into the system."
An unnamed source at the prison stated that the digital damage was so severe and used such "an elaborate array of passwords it took a specialist company to get it working," and expressed disbelief that "a criminal convicted of cyber-crime was allowed uncontrolled access to the hard drive [of the prison system]."
An official statement from the Prison Service claimed that a full investigation into the issue was underway, and denied that any prisoner was allowed access to systems without supervision. The Service also stated that "the prisoner was not able to access records of any other prisoners."
As a result of his attempts to - in the words of the Mirror - "[leave] the system crippled" Havard was placed in segregation. It is not known whether his behaviour will increase the amount of time he is likely to serve before release.
Do you believe that prisoners should be expected to use all their talents to repay their debt to society, or does this smack of giving the fox the keys to the hen-house? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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I am genuinely 'WTF' at the official response given by the Prison Service.
Given what has happened in this story it is blatantly flase.
Well done. Tax money is the money easiest to spend, eh?
Honestly what did they expect. Anyone with half an ounce of sense could have foretold this happening.
One word sums up the whole shenanigan: FAIL.
that was my thought too while reading that.
It's now called uncommon sense.
Who in their right mind wants to see prisoners get TV in ANY prison. They are supposed to be punished not turned into TV junkies.
You would be surprised to learn the places that need it most dont actually get enough funds to do allot themselves apart from "get by".
Probation barely have enough money to actually help do anything with offenders - no money to invest in itself either.
We currently use computers that are older than the dinosaurs.
No reason not to allow practice while locked up :(
what kind of incompetent fools work there anyway
and if they are so bad with computer security how is it that the jail is nearly full if there that bad why dont they just break out????
The Howard League for Penal Reform tried to put prisoners' talents to better use by setting up a graphic design business called Barbed in a prison.
You can read more about the project at http://www.howardleague.org/campaigns/ under the heading Real Work in Prisons.
It's interesting that the Prison Service doesn't seem to have showered itself in glory in that context either.