MONROE, Mich. – A high school senior in Monroe could face felony charges for crashing his school district's Internet service on multiple occasions.
It disrupted instruction in the classroom and the district's administrative functions over several weeks. It was not one but several mini-attacks over several weeks. Teachers couldn't rely on the Internet critical to their daily digital lesson plans.
District offices at times couldn't pay bills or file reports with the state.
"It was disruptive because we never knew when it would happen. It would happen periodically, sometimes for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Sometimes over an hour we couldn't get service," said Dr. Barry Martin, superintendent of the Monroe County Intermediate School District.
The Michigan State Police Cyber Command center has seized the phone of their suspect. The high school senior is being cooperative. It does not appear other students are involved. It appears the alleged cyber vandal used malicious programs available on the Internet.
"They used a program they obtained over the Internet. They basically overload a network with requests to the point it's no longer functioning," said Lt. Tony Cuevas, the Monroe state police post's commander.
Thankfully, he did not penetrate district firewalls. No accounts, grades or private information was put at risk. The school district is exploring new preventive measures.
"They're going to be looking at a subscription service or maybe some hardware in the future that will allow these attacks to be blocked so this won't happen again," said Martin.
State cyber experts are analyzing logs and building a case, but it's time-consuming. They will refer it to prosecutors in a few weeks. The alleged hacker is not a juvenile. He could face charges ranging from misdemeanors to a felony carrying a $30,000 fine.
Meanwhile, the student remains suspended until he can go before the board of education.