SMU law student jailed 2 months for illegal log-in to professors’ accounts
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SINGAPORE — Worried that his grades would fall below the minimum needed to qualify for legal practice in Singapore, a 32-year-old student illegally logged into his professor’s accounts to cheat in his law examination.
The Russian national, Georgy Kotsaga, also deleted his examination scripts and those of 18 others by using the same professor’s account, hoping to get a second shot and do better at the same examination.
For making an unauthorised access and modification of computer material on Nov 24 last year, Kotsaga was today (Feb 16) sentenced to two months’ jail. Another two similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Before the offences, Kotsaga — who was taking the Singapore Management University (SMU) Juris Doctor course — was feared that his Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.09 would fall further below 3.0, which is the minimum required grade to qualify for legal practice in Singapore.
He then decided to get the account credentials of the two law professors who were conducting the subject modules in which he was performing weakly.
Kotsaga bought a USB hardware keylogger from Sim Lim Square and plugged it into the common desktop computers in the professors’ respective classrooms. The keylogger was set to capture the professors’ usernames and passwords when they logged into their SMU “eLearn” accounts.
While taking his final examination for the Law of Property module through the SMU eLearn system on Nov 24, Kotsaga had difficulties answering the questions.
He then went to the toilet and changed the IP address of his iPhone 4S to avoid detection, before using it to gain access to his professor’s account so that he may view the scripts of other students taking the same examination.
Later that day, he logged into the same professor’s account again to view the top student’s examination script. Realising that he would not do very well, Kotsaga used his professor’s account to delete his and 18 other students’ examination scripts.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Nicholas Khoo said Kotsaga thought that by doing so, he would get a chance to try the examination again and do better the next time. What he did not know was that SMU’s IT system makes real-time backup of its content, so all the examination attempts were recovered.
Kotsaga’s actions came to light three days later when his course-mate sent an email to the IT department, stating that her examination attempt had been reset to “0” even though it should reflect “1” after she sat for the examination. Further investigations traced back to Kotsaga, who also gained access to another professor’s account.
Pressing for a two- to three-month jail term, DPP Khoo cited aggravating factors such as Kotsaga’s carefully planned and premediated actions, where he displayed a higher level of sophistication in securing unauthorised access than others who stumbled upon or guessed the passwords to an account. It was also egregious that the student took active steps to avoid detection, he added.
For the offences under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act, Kotsaga could have been fined S$5,000 or jailed for two years or both for making an unauthorised access of computer material, and fined up to S$10,000 or jailed for three years or both for the unauthorised modifications.
