A STUDENT could face up to 10 years in prison and a hefty fine after allegedly hacking into a university server and uploading malicious software.
He is said to have stolen a female student’s password and used it to gain access to the educational facility’s database, according to a statement issued by the Cyber Crime Prosecution head yesterday.
The Public Prosecution was notified of the crime by the Interior Ministry’s General Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security.
“A complaint was submitted by the university which said that its systems had been hacked, and an investigation was launched,” said the statement.
“The investigation revealed that the male student hacked into the university laboratory computers using a female student’s password which he stole.
“He then proceeded to upload malicious programmes that are threatening to the safety of the university’s database.”
According to the statement, the Public Prosecution commenced its investigation, took witness statements from technical experts for the university’s IT department as well as reviewed the technical report that revealed the incident on the system.
The Public Prosecution also reviewed a report of an internal investigation conducted by a special committee.
During his interrogation, the defendant was confronted with the evidence collected against him and he admitted to committing the crime.
He was held in custody pending the completion of the investigation.
“Tampering with access to computer systems by using the secret codes of others to achieve illegal objectives – similar to the actions of the accused – is considered an extremely dangerous crime due to the severe damage it entails in the service and utility sectors,” added the statement.
“Given the seriousness of the offence, the penalty prescribed for such crimes is up to 10 years in prison and a BD100,000 fine.”
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