Airplane hackers

Nathaniel Heatwole is a student at Guilford College. Several times between 7 February and 15 September 2003, he tested airline security. First, he smuggled in box cutters, clay resembling plastic explosives, and bleach simulating bomb-making chemicals through security. Then he hid these things in airplane lavatories, along with notes. Finally, he sent an email to the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) titled "Information Regarding Six Recent Security Breaches." The problem is that the TSA never asked him to test its security. In this same vein, computer networks have been plagued for years by hackers breaking into them. But these people aren’t breaking into systems for profit; they don't commit fraud or theft. They're breaking into systems to satisfy their intellectual curiosity, for the thrill, and just to see if they can. It is argued that although Heatwole’s actions were criminal, they weren’t terribly serious. His stunt was embarrassing, and cost a whole lot of money to investigate and clean up. It could have disrupted lots of people's travel schedules. But he's not a terrorist. He didn't do this to feed security information to al-Qaida. His actions didn't endanger anyone’s lives. There's a tendency to want to throw the book at him because he embarrassed important government officials, but that’s not a good enough reason. We need to discourage this behavior, but the punishment needs to fit the crime. Treat Heatwole as a criminal, but not a serious criminal.