Though charges have not yet been filed, the College is currently consulting with the District Attorney to determine what specific charges are appropriate to the case, according to Director of Public Affairs Peter Rooney.
The culprit’s actions were discovered earlier this month by the intricate security measures instituted and regulated by IT, and have alerted IT to the necessity for more, said Director of IT, Peter Schilling.
“We have layer upon layer of physical and technological measures that we take to prevent break-ins,” Schilling explained “This incident, while detected by some of these layers, also helped us identify additional steps we could take and ways the community of folks across campus who work with these resources could use them slightly differently in order to extend security even further.”
Other College students openly disapproved of the student’s actions as well, said Trevor Hyde ’12.
“Clearly he made a mistake,” said Hyde. “It was an error in judgment. There’s not much defending it. I think his skills could have been used elsewhere besides changing his grades. I’m just glad he didn’t change anyone else’s stuff.”
Though the College will not release any further information at this time due to the ongoing investigation and the criminal nature of the matter, Rooney said that the College is currently developing further security measures. He also called upon the entire College community to do their part in protecting the system.
“We are definitely feeling thankful that this is not a breach that affected a large number of the College community members,” Rooney said. “But I guess the one thing that comes to my mind is that no computer security system is perfect and there will always be people who will try to breach it. But the College is committed to being very vigilant to make the system as secure as it could be. It’s also important for members of the College community to keep the system as secure as possible.”