http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-34/1138897570313390.xml&coll=5 By Bernie Hillman THE FLINT JOURNAL February 02, 2006 LINDEN - A Linden High School senior who hacked into school records - possibly for the purpose of changing school grades, police say - handed his laptop over to police Tuesday. The laptop will be delivered to the state police crime lab in Lansing next week, said Argentine Township police Lt. Bruce Coverdill. Coverdill said the 17-year-old, who was suspended Jan. 25 for 10 days, is not talking to police and has an attorney. "He admitted getting into some files," Coverdill said. "We don't know what files - possibly changing school grades; we don't know to what degree." But hacking into a school computer is no easy task, said Thomas Svitkovich, superintendent for the Genesee Intermediate School District. "There are fire walls and protective devices in place at all levels," he said. "The systems are closed systems. You can't just dial up and get into something, but I don't know what he got into or what he was doing." It's too early in the investigation to know if the teen acted alone, said Coverdill, who noted that the hacking may have been going on for some time. "(The school) had suspected something was wrong with their files. They approached him, and he admitted to it," Coverdill said. Superintendent Elizabeth Leonard said she couldn't say much more other than the investigation is ongoing. "Certainly he got into some Linden files," Leonard said. Students will have limits on what they can access via computer until the investigation is complete, but Leonard said she could not say what those limits will be. Senior Jamie Wolverton said the incident was not the talk of the school. She found out about it Wednesday from a teacher in the computer lab class. "Someone said they couldn't save something, and (the teacher) said someone hacked into the system, and now we couldn't do that," Jamie said. "She didn't say how or who. We used to be able to save on a disc or under your own name, and now we can't do that." Leonard said a decision whether to lengthen the suspension was expected to be made today. ©2006 Flint Journal _________________________________ InfoSec News v2.0 - Coming Soon! http://www.infosecnews.org
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