A Maitland man’s
home is burglarized and jewelry was stolen. But the worst of it? The thieves stole the ashes of his late wife before he got a chance to scatter them in Hawaii.
The University of Central Florida has boosted the safeguards protecting its grading system after two students were charged with hacking the program and changing their grades, the school said Tuesday.
Samuel Williams, 25, is the second student arrested in the plot. He faces two counts of property crimes access computer electronic device without authority.
UCF Police say he changed numerous grades on tests in at least one of the classes he was taking in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science just hours before professors had to turn final grades in to the university in May, an arrest warrant states.
After the hacking incident was uncovered, the university’s IT officials analyzed their systems to see how they could be better safeguarded, UCF spokeswoman Courtney Gilmartin said.
“Anytime something happens, where a flaw is brought to our attention, we always will look at it and make improvements,” she said.
Several changes were made, but Gilmartin, citing security issues, did not go into details of what the changes were.
Williams and another student, Sami Ammar, 21, sneaked into the Mathematical Sciences Building late May 4 and used computers in the building to alter their grades, arrest reports show.
Ammar was arrested about two weeks later on a felony charge of accessing a computer electronic device with knowledge that such action is unauthorized.
He has pleaded not guilty, court records show.
The incidents were brought to light after Ammar’s Electronics I professor, Chung Young Chan, noticed a late-night confirmation email from the software he uses to log grades.
The professor had already approved grades, so he investigated and noticed Ammar’s grade had been changed from an F to a B. He reported the problem and police began investigating.
Authorities say a university employee called police just after midnight May 5 and reported seeing two men walking around the Mathematical Sciences Building.
The pair were caught on surveillance footage.
Police identified Ammar and Williams as the pair in the video, but they couldn’t find Williams for questioning.
While investigating, detectives found Williams also hacked into the grading software and changed his grades.
Police say he changed grades on four quizzes from a zero to a 100 percent.
He was arrested on a warrant July 3 after a traffic stop in Winter Garden, police said.
After any arrest, police typically notify the schools’ student conduct office.
Neither Ammar nor Williams are enrolled in classes at the school now.