Graves changed his grades more than 90 times between March 2015 and December 2016, according to an FBI affidavit, NY Times reported. Additionally, he also allegedly changed grades of five of his classmates on multiple occasions.
A professor accidentally discovered his hobbies. She tipped the IT security department after she noticed that Graves’ grades were changed multiple times without her authorization. Graves was arrested by the FBI in the last week of October, charged with computer hacking and knowingly transmitting a computer program to cause damage. There is a maximum 10-year prison time for both the charges.
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To fulfill his intentions, he installed keyloggers, which he likes to call “Hand of God” and “Pineapple,” in many computers in labs and classrooms. The low-cost devices enabled him to get the credentials of professors’ accounts as they can log anything typed on the keyboard. Keyloggers are also very easy to obtain and using them isn’t a rocket science at all.
An unnamed student told FBI that Graves also intercepted upcoming exams and shared copies of almost a dozen test papers with other students. The student also took the paper copies as he/she didn’t want the grading curve to affect their grades.
The university spent an amount of $68,000 for the investigation and bumping their security, they told FBI. Houses of two other students were searched during the investigation but they didn’t face any charge. The university students were warned of possible expulsion earlier this year if they were found involved in the matter.
via Naked Security
What are your views on this? Can you suggest something to prevent such events? Drop them in the comments.
