Students Breach Records at Fayetteville-Manlius High School

School officials of Fayetteville-Manlius High School have said that three students are under suspicion of hacking into computers and adjusting their grades and grade point averages but it seems that they did not change the grades of any other student, in a letter written to parents on October 31, 2007.

William Bleyle, Manlius Police Captain, said that they don't have any clear picture of the incident yet but steps are being taken for collecting vital information while interacting with several people, in a statement published by Syracuse on November 1, 2007. The police have not reached any result regarding the extent of damage and tampering.

Manlius Police said that the students were contacted on October 24, 2007 when the district's computer system observed an unofficial logging into their system. The staff and faculty were alerted by sending letters to amend their passwords. The school administrators also affirmed about somebody's hacking into the district's computer system.

One of the students was caught trying to detach an electronic monitoring device from a school computer on October 24; another was caught attempting to force an early entry into the school while the third student was found waiting nearby.

The security infringement took place in the Student Information System (SIS), which is a database management system for collecting data regarding student's personal information, attendance, grades and assessments. Investigators caught a third student trying to remove a monitoring device from a school computer in the record's office.

The police have interrogated all the three students and associated all of them to offense. Though none of the suspects have been indicted yet but the police presume that the students have acquired passwords to hack into the district's computer system to get access to the network involving student records.

The Manlius police investigators have notified that student records along with grades were manipulated with. Though it was still not clear that how many students' grades were distorted, only the extent of breach and destruction will decide if the crime is to be charged.

The school superintendent has informed that for the moment, the three students have been suspended for five days. The school authorities will wait for the outcome of the inquiry to decide further probable penalties for these students. The district has, however, told that they have continued using the computer system without any troubles.

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» SPAMfighter News - 11/20/2007