DETROIT COMPUTER THEFT LEADS TO HACKING AT HIGH SCHOOLLincoln Park students charged with hacking school computersMay 11, 2004, 12:07 AM


LINCOLN PARK, Mich. (AP) -- Authorities charged three teenagers with hacking into Lincoln Park High School computers to change their grades and attendance records.

Two of them also created a Web site telling other students that the computer system had been hacked and giving instructions on how to change grades, police said.

Aaron J. Kinder and Matthew J. Bennett, both 18, and Jacob B. Parker, 17, were arraigned Monday on felony charges of unauthorized use of or access to a computer. District Judge David Bajorek entered innocent pleas on their behalf.

If convicted as charged, each faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

"The investigation started in December after several burglaries at the school," Lincoln Park police Lt. Terry Stafford told the Detroit Free Press for a report published Tuesday. "We had several informants."

Police said Dell Optiplex computers were stolen in each of at least three break-ins at the high school in December. Officials with the suburban Detroit school district also told police they believed someone had tampered with the school's system.

One of the suspects installed a keylogger, which records every keystroke on a computer. That information permits access to users' passwords and other personal information, police said.

According to police reports, Parker also installed several illegal servers on the computers so he could transfer information stored by the keylogger to his personal computer at home. A Wayne County sheriff's detective analyzed all the hard drives seized from Parker's home and found the school computer system's administrative password at least 25 times on his personal computer.

Parker and Kinder also are suspected of creating the Web site informing other students about the school's hacked computers. Between 75 and 100 students accessed it regularly, Stafford said.

The Free Press said it could not reach school officials or any of the suspects for comment.

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Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com