Two students (hackers) at a university in Shanghai have been charged with hacking into the institution's computer network in order to modify information about a physical education course.
With entrepreneurship running through their veins, the student duo found a simple way to make easy money, around $4,000 / €2,900 (25,000 yuan), during their studies at Lixin University of Commerce in Shanghai.
One of the university's requirements is for male students to complete 20 laps of a 1,500-meter race, and 18 laps for women. The data is recorded in the database by swiping a card at the start and end of the run. Failure to complete the full number of laps results in a failure and a failure in physical education.
Students Zhou and Cao started a business together that would bring them steady income from “clients” who wanted to change data in the university’s archives.
The story started out like most similar stories… Zhou was afraid he would fail the course and to avoid this, he gained unauthorized access to the database and modified the records. Some of his fellow students found out and offered him money to do the same for them. Cao learned about the business and offered to help Zhou by gathering clients for the business, leaving him more time to focus on hacking. The lucrative business lasted four months and each hack was charged around $3/€2 (20 yuan).
The university eventually became aware of the data changes and the hackers and reported the two students to the police. The arrested students said they knew it was wrong, but never imagined their actions were a crime.
