Three students have been involved in hacking into a professor's computer and changing the grades they had received, which has resulted in two arrests and a lengthy investigation.
Two current engineering students, Sujay Sharma and Mitsutoshi Shirasaki, have been arrested by the Purdue University Police Department (PUPD) on a lengthy list of charges from burglary, to computer tampering, to forgery. Former student, Roy Sun, is also involved in the case. Sun, now a graduate student at Boston University. He is currently in his home country of Japan and his future has yet to be determined.
The case arose in January when a Purdue professor alerted to Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) that his University account password had been changed, along with the security question he had set. This is when he noticed that grades had been changed from previous semesters.
The three students somehow switched the keyboards in an ITaP computer lab that professors used and received information from there to change the grades.
John Cox, police chief for PUPD, said the police have been working with ITaP, the FBI, Boston University Police Department and Pat Harrington, the prosecutor for the case, to investigate the situation since January. Cox said that this case was the first of this magnitude.
"This was no outside attack," Cox said. "This was some students who were very smart and used their knowledge and wisdom to do something they shouldn't have."
Sharma and Shirasaki are no longer enrolled at Purdue and their grades have been changed back to reflect what each student had originally received. They also face local and state charges for the grade changes.
According to Jeff Stefancic, associate dean for the Office of Rights and Responsibilities, the University is still looking at Roy's status as he is no longer a Purdue student.
"We can examine a student's graduation status and potentially revoke a degree that was granted if the situation warrants it. That's currently under our administrative review right now," Stefancic said.
