21-year-old hacker nabbed for breaking into accounts of 100,000 students

A 21-year-old hacker from Novaliches, Quezon City was nabbed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Thursday for breaking into the accounts of at least 100,000 students of different colleges and universities.

According to John Consulta’s report on “24 Oras,” the NBI Cybercrime Division identified the hacker as John Rayven Aquino.

The NBI found scripts and programs used for hacking on Aquino’s laptop.

Aquino and the group of hackers that he is part of entered at least 100,000 accounts of students who registered online for the upcoming school year.

“Sinabihan lang din po ako na subukan pasukin ‘yung mga schools. ‘Yung mga social media accounts po, wala po. Email saka password lang po,” he said.

“Pero ang mga tao naman po ‘di ba, mostly iisang password lang po lahat? That’s how we do it po [sa] information po ng mga students kasi puwede po talaga ‘yong mabenta,” Aquino added.

NBI Cybercrime Divison chief Vic Lorenzo said the hackers compromised accounts, allowing them to edit the contents of a school’s database.

“So lahat ng content no’ng mga database ‘yon, puwede mong i-edit. Pag na-edit mo ‘yon, puwedeng i-edit mo ang grades, makopya ‘yong mga modules. Puwede ring exam. Kaya ‘yung whole integrity ng e-learning natin, mako-compromise,” he said.

“Ang pinakamataas na isyu ngayon is ‘yung security ng mga e-learning facilities,” Lorenzo underscored.

Aquino said he had been trying to change and vowed not to hack into accounts again.

The NBI is still determining the extent of the data breach.

NBI Director Eric Distor urged schools to report suspicious internet activities to authorities.

“I would like to encourage the universities and other schools to beef up their cybersecurity systems, especially during this time of transition to e-learning,” he said. —Julia Mari Ornedo/LDF, GMA News