A former Laurentian University student who said he was trying to do the school a favour by hacking into its network back in January is now facing charges from Greater Sudbury Police Service.
The GSPS sent out a release this morning saying the 25-year-old has been charged with unauthorized use of a computer system, mischief to data and breach of probation.
Although police didn’t release his name, previous media reports identified him as Spencer Brydges, a computer science student who was in his final semester this past winter. The news release detailing the charges didn’t include Brydges’ name, but GSPS confirmed the charges stemmed from the January hack (reported to police in February) Brydges admitted to being behind.
According to media reports, Brydges said he had noticed vulnerabilities in the Laurentian network and probed them to see how robust the security measures were. He said he did this out of concern for his own private information, as well as that of fellow students, staff and faculty.
He said accessing the data was surprisingly easy.
It wasn’t his first time testing the limits of LU’s network security either, he reportedly said in April. A few years earlier he said he was able to access the school’s parking database.
After finding he could easily access the network, Brydges said he reported it to the school, which then called in police and launched an investigation. During that time, Brydges said he was banned from campus and had to finish his final semester remotely.
The type of hacking Brydges said he was doing is known as “white hat” hacking, meaning the person doing what would normally be illegal — accessing a network without permission — is done for altruistic purposes. Namely, to identify problems so the network administrator could plug holes in the system.
Brydges said at the time he was surprised and disappointed that Laurentian called in police, considering he himself told them what he’d done and the reason he did it.