A Kansas University student has got himself expelled after he decided on hacking school computer to change his grades.
The student whose name and age is not given went as far as installing a hardware keylogger which is used in capturing and recording computer users’ keystrokes so as to get things like sensitive passwords. Using the data he got from the device, the student went on to hack into the school’s grading system and change his grades.
The incident which happened at the Kansas University (KU), had the student logging into the school’s systems and changing his grades from an F to an A.
Although the keylogger used by the student was a very simple one, it worked excellently for him, and according to professors from the university, the deed would have gone successfully had it not been for the greed of the student.
“He may never even have gotten caught, but he got greedy,” said Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, an engineering professor at KU. “It does look a little suspicious when you are on academic probation and the dean’s honor roll at the same time.”
Beyond just this incidence, Barrett-Gonzalez is seeing a potential problem and that is the concern that “our bank accounts may be drained,” he said. “If you steal 15 people’s IDs, all of a sudden 20 bucks turns into 200. This is more dangerous than I think people have let on.”
More so, he said there is the fear that the grading system may be brought to disrepute. This fear is legitimate as this is not the first time that students are using technology to change their scores.
As far back as 2014, eleven students were expelled from a school in southern California for allegedly hacking teachers’ computers and changing their grades. According to reports, there were speculations that the students also made use of keylogger to access the computers.
The hacking scandal which was at the Corona Del Mar High School was suspected to have been assisted by a 28-year-old private tutor, Timothy Lai.
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It was reported that six of the students involved in the hacking had already left the school while the remaining five were transferred to another local school.
Another incident of students hacking school computer to change grade was reported at the Glenbrook North High School. This was done differently as the student involved created the fake email sent it to several teachers and asked them to use a provided link to log in. Even though the link was fake, it allowed him to capture the passwords of teachers who fell for it. Through this, he was able to view and edit different results.
