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The biz-school hack that wasn't?
Did MBA wanna-bes applying to Harvard and MIT really hack the system to find out how their applications were progressing? I wonder, now that I've read this post by The Volokh Conspiracy's Orin Kerr, whether it's a simple case of MBA app administrators (a) not really understanding how their sites are programmed and (b) users doing what users do -- click around a user interface, which includes the URL.
Kerr writes:
"I have been getting lots of mail from techie friends and VC readers about the recent hacking incidents by applicants to a number of top business schools. I first posted about the incident here. Harvard and MIT took the matter sufficiently seriously that they decided to deny the applications of those involved. The odd thing is, it increasingly seems like the applicants may have done nothing wrong. The alleged "hack" may be no hack at all. ..." More here.
If Kerr is right, do you think these applications be reinstated? Why not?
I like what VC reader Kristine at Divine Angst says (this picture is her avatar). Note that Kristine is a pending 1L with street cred -- she was just admitted to law schools but isn't saying where yet, so she may have been competing against some of these folks:
"[T]his was more like wandering down a hall where you know admissions offices are and randomly trying for unlocked doors. And when you find one, you go in and start scrounging around on desks for the file folder with your name on it. Still ethically questionable -- after all, you have to know you're not really supposed to be in there -- but certainly not illegal. The door was open! You just happened to come upon it! And look -- my admissions decision is sitting on that desk right there!
"I don't know the full extend of Harvard's punishment for their 100-something admittees, but MIT apparently will let their group of 30-something reapply next year. That actually seems quite fair to me. They made a bad decision and got caught. That's not to say the institutions themselves aren't overreacting just a bit, but we should consider that, just like Heidi did, the finder of the original weakness could always have alerted the company first. Instead, that person spread the word." More here.
Posted by John Bringardner on March 10, 2005 at 02:58 PM | Permalink
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