Δύο απόφοιτοι του Πανεπιστημίου Purdue των ΗΠΑ, παραδέχτηκαν ότι
πραγματοποίησαν επίθεση hacking στα μηχανογραφικά συστήματα του
εκπαιδευτικού ιδρύματος, σε μια προσπάθεια να αλλάξουν τη βαθμολογία
τους.
Ο Roy C. Sun και Sujay Sharma χρησιμοποίησαν προγράμματα
καταγραφής πληκτρολογήσεων (keyloggers) για την υποκλοπή των στοιχείων
πρόσβασης των καθηγητών, εισήλθαν στο σύστημα του πανεπιστημίου και να
τροποποίησαν τους βαθμούς τους.
Σύμφωνα με την εφημερίδα Jοurnal
& Courier, o Sun ομολόγησε την ενοχή του και αποδέχτηκε τις
κατηγορίες για συνωμοσία για μη εξουσιοδοτημένη πρόσβαση σε υπολογιστή
και αλλοίωση στοιχείων. Ο Sharma ομολόγησε επίσης την ενοχή του, και οι
δύο νέοι αναμένεται να δικαστούν το Φεβρουάριο.
Σύμφωνα με το
κατηγορητήριο, ο Sharma φέρεται να έχει αλλάξει μόνο έναν βαθμό από D σε
Α. Ο Sun, από την άλλη πλευρά, κατηγορείται για την τροποποίηση εννέα
βαθμών από F σε A, στο διάστημα μεταξύ Μαΐου 2008 και Μαΐου 2010, όπου
και αποφοίτησε .
Οι Sun και Sarma δεν είναι οι μόνοι ύποπτοι στην υπόθεση αυτή, και σύμφωνα με τις αρχές εμπλέκονται και άλλοι φοιτητές, οι οποίοι τροποποίησαν την βαθμολογία τους.
Purdue students charged in grade changing scheme
TIPPECANOE COUNTY – Three Purdue engineering students face a series
of felony charges after prosecutors say they engaged in a scheme to
alter their own grades.
According to court documents, Purdue’s Information Technology
Security Services for Purdue University (ITaP) contacted campus police
after learning that a student was logging into a professor’s university
computer account and changing grades.
That professor had contacted the department twice to reset his password, saying that someone had changed his password.
Computer security analysts looked at the logs and discovered that
someone had accessed the professor’s account using an IP address that
wasn’t affiliated with the university and changed the password. That
happened on two occasions: once on Nov. 30, 2012, and another time on
Dec. 18, 2012.
ITaP traced the second incident to Mitsutoshi Shirasaki, a
24-year-old Purdue student who prosecutors said logged onto Purdue’s Air
Link wireless network, using the professor’s account to change his
grade from a C to a B.
Investigators later discovered that Shirasaki changed grades in four
other classes that semester. Prosecutors said he used the same tactic to
access other professors’ computer accounts so he could change his
grades.
Further investigation uncovered that the student’s activities went
back to 2010, and that he had changed more than a dozen of his grades.
In some cases, Shirasaki made a slight change, elevating a C to B or D
to a B+. In most other cases, according to court documents, he changed
his grade from a failing mark to an A. On one occasion, prosecutors
said, he changed the grade of his girlfriend, elevating her from an A to
an A+ in a class.
Shirasaki’s instructors confirmed to investigators that the grades had been altered without their permission.
According to court documents, Shirasaki installed key-logging devices
in keyboards, swapping them with keyboards inside classrooms and
professors’ offices. He picked locks to get into the offices, court
documents said. Investigators found several keyboards that had been
tampered with.
Shirasaki’s girlfriend informed investigators that he’d told her
about the plot to change grades and also dumped keyboards and his
computer out in a field after he realized police were onto him. His
girlfriend said two other students, Sujay Sharma, 24, and Roy Chaoran
Sun, 24, helped Shirasaki pull off the scheme.
Court documents said both Sharma and Sun helped Shirasaki break into
offices by serving as lookouts. All three students gained access to
tests before taking exams, court documents said.
Shirasaki said Sun taught him how to alter the keyboards to install
key-loggers. On one occasion, Shirasaki said Sun changed a grade for him
while he was away from school with his family, court documents said.
The three face several charges ranging from conspiracy to commit
computer tampering and computer trespass to burglary, theft and
receiving stolen property. All are felonies.
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