A computer hacker who infiltrated a UK University computer network in order to break into student bank accounts has been given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay over £20,000 in costs and compensation.
Twenty-three year old Bulgarian national Daniel Woo was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court for offences under the Misuse of Computers Act.
Woo was arrested at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies after being caught in the act of installing password-capturing software.
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service's Police Central e-Crime Unit established that Woo had falsely claimed to be a student in order to gain access to a computer room on the campus. Once inside he used the Cain and Abel password-cracking software to capture network data and break student email passwords, opening access to hundreds of private emails containing personal identification and financial information. It was subsequently established that fraud had taken place on a number of the compromised payment accounts.
Officers were also able to link Woo to further similar offences at the University of Coventry and the University of Northampton.
Woo was charged on 28 May 2009 and subsequently pleaded guilty to all offences on 20 August 2010.