Man arrested for hacking computers, emails & damaging property
Updated: January 22, 2013
URBANA -- Investigators said a University of Illinois student damaged school property, hacked into university email accounts and collected private information from school computers. Daniel Beckwitt was arrested Friday. He bonded out of jail Sunday.
Police said he's involved with a complicated string of crimes around campus. Investigators said they've never seen anything like this before. It all started in November. That's when a University of Illinois professor told police someone tampered with the door to his office, using a combination of super-glue and metal chips to damage the lock.
Police said Beckwitt hacked into that professor's email and sent a message to students from it. Later, more doors on campus were damaged with that glue and metal combination. Police say more emails were sent from that professor's account.
Investigators said Beckwitt also tampered with computers at the Everitt Lab on campus and put key loggers on three computers. Those can track whatever people type on them.
"We're a very computer-driven society, and if someone gets your passwords to your different accounts, the damage to that person could be very substantial," said University of Illinois police detective Tom Geis.
University of Illinois investigators worked with campus IT to track the source of those fake emails. They searched online forums and found someone named the ECE Hacker. ECE stands for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois. That user claimed responsibility for the crimes. Investigators said they traced it all back to Beckwitt.
Police found several computers and hard drives when they searched his home in Urbana Friday. But, it could take months to find out everything that's on them.
They also found what they believe is packaging material from computer key loggers. Beckwitt was taking classes last semester but he's not enrolled in any for the spring.
Police said he's involved with a complicated string of crimes around campus. Investigators said they've never seen anything like this before. It all started in November. That's when a University of Illinois professor told police someone tampered with the door to his office, using a combination of super-glue and metal chips to damage the lock.
Police said Beckwitt hacked into that professor's email and sent a message to students from it. Later, more doors on campus were damaged with that glue and metal combination. Police say more emails were sent from that professor's account.
Investigators said Beckwitt also tampered with computers at the Everitt Lab on campus and put key loggers on three computers. Those can track whatever people type on them.
"We're a very computer-driven society, and if someone gets your passwords to your different accounts, the damage to that person could be very substantial," said University of Illinois police detective Tom Geis.
University of Illinois investigators worked with campus IT to track the source of those fake emails. They searched online forums and found someone named the ECE Hacker. ECE stands for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois. That user claimed responsibility for the crimes. Investigators said they traced it all back to Beckwitt.
Police found several computers and hard drives when they searched his home in Urbana Friday. But, it could take months to find out everything that's on them.
They also found what they believe is packaging material from computer key loggers. Beckwitt was taking classes last semester but he's not enrolled in any for the spring.
