Four months in prison for English student who used keyloggers for fraud

A University of Birmingham student was sentenced Friday to four months in prison for breaking into the university’s grade administration. He used a keylogger for this. The man is the first in the UK to be jailed for changing numbers.

The 25-year-old student placed devices, presumably USB sticks, between the computers and the keyboards of university staff. This allowed the student to register keystrokes and thus steal passwords. One of the victims was someone who had direct access to the accounting records.

Thanks to the keyloggers, the senior life sciences student was able to break into the grade administration. He then artificially inflated at least five exam marks. In one instance, he raised the value from a figure from 57 percent to 73 percent, The Daily Telegraph reported.

During a routine upgrade, computer workers discovered the existence of a keylogger. It turned out to be mounted on the back of a computer case. The university decided to check more computers and discovered at least three other keyloggers. The student soon came into the picture, who turned out to have been looking for hardware keyloggers on his computer at home on eBay.

The student argued that he was the only one in his family to ever attend college. He therefore felt a lot of pressure to complete his studies, according to The Daily Telegraph. That’s why he would have installed the keyloggers. The University of Birmingham only announced that it would take firm action against fraudsters. They run the risk of being expelled from university.