An Indian-American student who hacked his school’s computer system earlier this year to change his failed grades to “A” has been granted probation and asked to apologize to his professors.
According to report, the judge granted 20-year-old Varun H Sarja, a year and a half probation “with an underlying 18-month prison sentence that could be ordered to serve should he fail at probation.”
Sarja, who was condemned on May 18 under felony counts, had pleaded guilty to two counts each of identity theft and unlawful computer acts.
However, the remaining counts against him were dismissed. The criminal charges were filed against Sarja in November 2017.
While studying engineering as a freshman at University of Kansas (KU) during the 2016-17 school year, Sarja used a keystroke logger to steal confidential login information and hacked into multiple campus computers to change his failing grades.
A keylogger is a device plugged into the computer that tracks or logs the keys struck on the keyboard in a covert manner, enabling the hacker to get access to username and password.
A probe has disclosed that Sarja that year had modified almost all of his 10 grades by stealing professors login credentials.
“Sarja told detectives he loved engineering, wanted to be successful and was scared to tell his parents he had failed classes,” the report noted.
Sarja has agreed to the terms of his probation, saying he would apologize directly to those professors who were affected and as well told the judge that he would not access keyloggers again.
By Sowmya Sangam
