FBI To Probe California University Hack That Changed Student’s Grades

More than 60 current and former students at Santa Clara University had their academic records hacked into and grades changed – for the better, according to a letter posted to the school’s site on Monday by university president Michael Engh.

The note claims that there was unauthorized access to the system between June 2010 and July 2011 and after several days of investigating, the university enlisted the help of the FBI in targeting the source of the breach.

Officials at the school first began to look into the hack in August 2011 after a former student notified the school a grade on her transcript was different than the one she’d initially received. After the report, officials began scouring through 50,000 old records, spanning back to 2000 and found the first instances of grade changes in 2004. Following FBI regulations, the school was allowed to disclose the hack this week.

An investigation into the hack revealed that grades were changed for students enrolled in all three of the university’s schools, including the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering, and the Leavey School of Business. While some of the adjustments were subtle, like tweaking a B to a B+, some were more conspicious, like improving an F to an A-.

“There is no evidence to suggest that other personal information of students, staff or faculty has been compromised,” states one part of the press release, suggesting that this hack was solely relegated to the school’s computerized record system.

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