Crime & Public Safety
Cops: Ex-Kennesaw State student hacker changed grades and stole data
A former Kennesaw State University student has been charged with hacking into the school's computer system and changing grades.
Chase Hughes, 19, turned himself into the Cobb County Sheriff's Office on Monday on three counts of computer trespassing and other charges, according to a statement from spokeswoman Tammy DeMel.
Kennesaw State police began an investigation in May after receiving reports of the hacking. It started when a professor received a email from the university's computer system that there had been a grade change that he did not make. The professor alerted school officials who then told police.
The grades were immediately corrected.
"While the system worked as it should and alerted professors of the grade changes, additional measure have been put into place to help further detect unauthorized access," said Lectra Lawhorne, the school's interim chief information officer.
Hughes was enrolled at KSU from fall 2015 to summer 2016 as a business major with a concentration in finance.
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Ben Brasch is the reporter tasked with keeping Fulton County government accountable. The Florida native moved to Atlanta for a job with The AJC. If there's something important to you going on in Fulton, he wants to know about it. Help him better metro Atlanta by dropping a line, anonymously or otherwise.
