Yesterday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida announced the indictment of three FAMU students charged with hacking into the university’s computer system. The indictment resulted from a joint investigation by the FAMU Police Department, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.Marcus Barrington (23), Christopher Jacquette (27), and Lawrence Secrease (22 ), are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and unauthorized computer access, aggravated identity theft, and one substantive count of unauthorized computer access.
The indictment alleges that between June and December 2007, the three students hacked into FAMU’s computer system and made unauthorized grade and residency changes. According to the indictment, the conspirators changed the grades of approximately 90 FAMU students, effecting approximately 650 grades overall.
The grade changes increased the grade point averages of the majority of the 90 students, which in turn, made those students eligible for grants, scholarships, and loans to which they were not entitled.
Approximately 114 of the grade changes were failing “F” grades that were changed to “A” grades. The indictment also alleges that the conspirators changed the residency status of certain students from out-of-state to in-state, thus reducing the amount of tuition owed to the university by thousands of dollars.
According to federal prosecutors, the conspirators obtained secure user names and passwords from the registrar’s office by surreptitiously installing keystroke loggers on computers used by staffers.
UPDATE: Today, the three defendants pled "not guilty" to the charges.
LOL>>>and guess who the 90 students were...drumroll please
ReplyDeleteWOW
ReplyDeleteGet'em !
ReplyDeleteok...well who were the 90 students setfriday? don't leave us in suspense.
ReplyDeleteanyone looked these kids up on facebook and took a look at their friends? that may provide some clues.
ReplyDeleteIf this what i hear is true than the glass ceiling to who these 90 students were is about to crack wide open.
ReplyDeleteI'm not trying to be the barer of bad news but word is these 90 students are highly respected students within the FAMU student body.
It's truly a shame that some people can't work hard, and earn their acheivements these days. It disgust me.
I also hope the 90 students are also charged. If not i'm going to raise hell come November 4th with my civil duty. Hard earned tax money was really being wasted on these greedy self-righteous individuals.
I know Mr. Barrington pretty good, and to think that he would commit a foolish crime of this nature just sours my stomach. I really hope because of a few ignorant fools this doesn't taint our image, as an education mecca
I'm going to say that ever since this story broke last year the same names of the students invovled in this incident who had their grades changed keeps comming up in conversations among the student body.
I swear i'm going to raise hell if these 90 students are who i think. Manipulation should never be tolerated, not at a education facility. I am so heated, as a student, a tax payer, and a friend to some of these people it just makes me lose trust in people if they are worth looking up to. I'm sorry about my anger i just cound't control it. Setfriday3 please release them names.
Let's not rush to judgement here. An indictment IS NOT a conviction !!! Let's be careful and let the legal process run its course.
ReplyDelete^^^^ I concur.
ReplyDeleteVengeance is mine sayeth the Lord!God sees all AND knows all!! Keep doing the right thing 11:25 and don't wish the worst on anyone's life because God is in full control. FAMU is about change. Remember that!
ReplyDeleteNow I know how Marcus got that new truck..charging 500 for grade changes. Let's see, the Deltas and Alphas were amongst the ones getting grade changes.
ReplyDelete11:25, I think if anyone reads your comment, our image might already be "tainted." I know that this forum is a site for informal commentary, but your grammar and infractious writing might leave many wondering how you made it to a 4-year institution. I'm wondering. How did you pull that off? Wow.
ReplyDeleteThey worked in financial aid, they werent "hackers"
ReplyDelete5:37 if they worked in Financial Aid and did what they were indicted for they are "hackers" by definition. Now, the word most often associated with those in Financial Aid is usually "slackers".
ReplyDeleteAs some one who has had to deal with Financial Aid, it is hard for me to believe that they could hardly find the time to do this extra work given their customer service friendly, prompt and competent service that they provide to the non-cheating, non-lying, non- pompous arrogant students .
Hence, the oxymoron that is created with associating work with anyone in Financial Aid is a something that I can not comprehend.
His grammar skills may not be at par, but indeed a goal to make it college was suceeded. Keep doing what you do. I'm going to always look out for my own.
ReplyDeleteSetfriday3 is still around? I thought Blogger shut that site down for good last time. That site is like a roach that keeps escaping from Blogger's shoe.
ReplyDelete6:56, I like that hackers/slackers analogy. Your last statement is a hoot.
ReplyDeleteNo we shut it down ourselves because of the lawsuits that would have surfaced due to certian information that was forwarded to us by certian people..new sit new years 2009
ReplyDeleteUh, if you thought if certain information you posted would attract lawsuits, then why didn't you just delete that information and move on? Or better yet, why did you even post that stuff in the first place? You do understand that you don't have to post everything that everyone gives you, right?
ReplyDeleteLooks like Blogger made the decision to close you down. Nice attempt to save face, though.
Garbage anyway. Never advanced FAMUans.
ReplyDeleteIf you read the indictment http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/files/barrington_indictment.pdf then you see that some of the 90 students were random people picked to throw investigators off the track. But there is other information that makes it seem like someone sold them out too. The indictment has a lot of specifics as to how they did this. Maybe being watched for a while?
ReplyDeleteThe students are innocent until proven guilty. If it turns out that one or all three are guilty; then, the 90 students who accepted the changes should be charged with theft by receipt., the cheese shouldn't stand alone. Also, someone in the Registrats Office had to have been involved.
ReplyDeleteMichael's truck money had nothing to do with this situation; watch what you say about people when they have something.