US Student Hacker Who Used Phishing Scheme to Change Grades Arrested!

Who didn’t want to have the power of changing school grades? This California teen has made the dreams of many students a reality. The young hacker from Cali launched a phishing campaign aimed to obtain teacher’s passwords to amend school grades. The 16-year-old sent out emails attempting to access teacher’s personal information.

After the scheme had been discovered, the student was arrested and charged with 14 different felonies. As of today, the young hacker is kept in custody. The investigation started after the educators in the Mount Diablo Unified School District reported getting suspicious emails that turned out to be part of the phishing scheme.

The Gist of the Phishing Scheme

So, how did the young felon arrange the hacking attempt? There were several steps to make it possible.

• The teachers would get an email that would forward them to a link that looked very similar to  the school’s personal portal.
• Next, they would be prompted to sign in by entering their login information.

It became known that one educator logged into the phishing portal, thus granting the student an access to the IT network and grading system of the school district. As soon as the student hacker obtained access, he amended his own grades and the grades of 10 to 15 other students, lowering or raising them.

Eventually, the local police department tracked the IP information to the student’s address. Upon arriving to the place, a K-9 unit reportedly discovered a flash drive that might have something to do with the case. The teen hacker in question admitted to arranging the whole hacking affair because it was like “stealing a candy from a baby.”