Student guilty in ID theft
Date: September 29, 2006Source: www.timesdispatch.com
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George Nkansah Owusu's sentencing is set for Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court. He had been scheduled for trial next month.
Owusu, 26, will receive a mandatory penalty of two years in prison for identity theft, which he must serve in addition to any sentence for the computer fraud charge. Computer fraud carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Under his agreement with the U.S. attorney's office, a criminal complaint replaces an earlier indictment that included two more-serious charges.
Owusu signed a statement admitting that in early 2005 he surreptitiously installed a "keylogger" software program on computers in the VCU library and in several science labs.
The keylogger recorded the computer keys pressed by everyone using those computers. Owusu periodically went to the computers and e-mailed the data from the keylogger to himself.
That gave Owusu the log-in names and passwords for the e-mail and online accounts of many students and university staff members. The data also included how to get into Web sites and e-mail accounts accessed by anyone using those computers.
In October and November last year, Owusu logged into the VCU class registration system using another student's log-in name and password. He dropped that student from several filled honors courses and put himself in those slots.
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