Four former Fort Bend Independent School District students have been indicted in a computer hacking scheme that prosecutors said involved as many as 14 students, many who had fake names in the “organization” to hide their true identities.
The punishment range for their charges includes the possibility of life in prison.
The scheme started in 2007 and involved students at Hightower, Bush and Elkins high schools. Students would steal computers from the campuses, take it to a student who installed malicious software on it, then return the computer to school the next day.
A student would then run the newly installed programs, which infected the district’s network. The software recorded e-mail addresses, keystrokes, passwords and other information, sending it to e-mail addresses stored on an out-of-state server.
The students would use the information to hack into teacher accounts and change grades and absentee records. Fort Bend County Assistant District Attorney Scott Carpenter said the information basically gave the students free reign as far as the school district’s records were concerned, and one teacher was threatened via e-mail.
The investigation began in 2008 when teachers began to notice that grades were being changed. Students were questioned, and prosecutors said the four indicted Monday eventually admitted to their role in the scheme.
The indictments were handed down to Rishab Verma, a former Hightower student, Ravi Thakral, a former Bush student, Francis Nwajel, a former Elkins student and Vincent Paresa, a former Bush student.
Carpenter said it does not appear that any money was exchanged in return for improving a student’s grades.
“Kids do things for their own motives, to see if they could do it I would imagine,” said Carpenter. “The trill of it - to actually change grades so kids could maintain a much better scholastic standing then they would have had otherwise. One child was under pressure to make good grades and chose to have a few grades changed this way to accomplish that.”
All four were 17 when the crimes were committed, and will be tried as adults. Prosecutors said that as many as eight more indictments could be handed down to suspects who were juveniles at the time, and cannot be tried as adults.
None of the four have been arrested, and prosecutors are working with the former students’ families and expect them to turn themselves in within the month.
The four have been charged with breaching computer security, conspiracy, fraudulent use of identifying information, engaging in organized criminal activity and tampering with government documents. The charges include both state jail felonies and first degree felonies, and carry a punishment range of probation to life in prison.
