Student arrested for allegedly hacking university computers to derail election

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://cbs11tv.com/national/HackerArrested-aa/resources_news_html

Saturday June 21, 2003

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) A 21-year-old student was arrested for
allegedly hacking into a university computer system during student
elections to cast hundreds of votes for a made-up candidate he named
American Ninja.

Shawn Nematbakhsh, a computer science major at the University of
California, Riverside, was arrested Friday for investigation of drug
possession and altering computer data without permission.

If convicted, he could face up to three years in prison and a $10,000
fine. He was being held Saturday on $10,000 bail. Arraignment was set
for Tuesday.

School officials said Nematbakhsh cast the 800 votes in April, forcing
the university to scrap the election results and hold a new student
government election the following month.

Nematbakhsh told police he did it to show the university network was
vulnerable, said university spokesman Ricardo Duran.

``I think he made his point, but you might say he went about it in the
wrong way,'' Duran said. ``An e-mail to the webmaster might have
sufficed.''

Nematbakhsh, who was expected to graduate this year, will be required
to appear before a university judicial review board which could expel
him, suspend him, require restitution or require him to repeat an
academic quarter.



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