2 Students Are Accused of Altering Grades in Computer Hacking Case
Two Cal State Northridge students have been accused of hacking into a professorâs computer, giving grades to nearly 300 students and sending pizza, magazine subscriptions and CDs to the professorâs home.
Lena Chen, 20, of Torrance and Jennifer Ngan, 19, of Alhambra are to be arraigned Aug. 21 on misdemeanor charges of accessing computers illegally and other counts. If convicted, they face up to a year in prison.
According to Cal State police, Chen confessed to getting access to the professorâs account by answering a routine security question and changing the password.
âThey felt the professor was unfair, and it was on behalf of all the students,â said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the city attorneyâs office, which filed the charges. âThey were trying to be college pranksters.â
Mateljan said Chen also admitted assigning grades to nearly 300 students and giving Ngan, who was earning a D-plus, an A in the professorâs political institutions course. The school would not release the professorâs name.
Investigators said the professorâs campus e-mail was being forwarded to an account created by Chen and Ngan, who were sharing a Northridge apartment.
Ken Swisher, a campus spokesman, said he knew of no previous incidents like this one. Political science professor Jane Bayes, who has worked at the school since 1968, said she remembered only one student hacking into a computer to change grades in the 1970s.
Nationwide this year, more than 800,000 people at colleges and universities have had sensitive information exposed in more than 30 security failures.
Chen and Ngan allegedly used the professorâs personal information found on the university system to order pizza, more than 20 magazine subscriptions -- including for Time, Newsweek and Ebony -- and a shipment of blank CDs for delivery to the professorâs home.
The professor received bills for the orders but was not charged.
âIdentity theft and computer tampering are serious matters,â Mateljan said. âWe want to send a clear message that this type of behavior is unacceptable.â
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