College student Farah Shah, facing a Class 1 misdemeanor for computer trespassing, was sentenced Tuesday to complete 50 hours of community service. She will not serve jail time. According to court documents, she pled guilty to the offense.
Last month, University Police concluded that Shah had sent messages to third parties from the victim's email and Facebook accounts on four separate occasions. Shah was discovered by the victim, who then reported the incident to the police for further investigation, Shirley Payne, assistant vice president for information security, policy, and records at the University, said in an email.
Payne said the University's Ethics in Computer Usage Policy, which prohibits unauthorized access to other individuals' accounts and files, exists to prevent events like computer trespassing from occurring. She also said incidents like computer trespassing do not occur often at the University.
"What does occur with some frequency is that student computers become infected via the Internet with malicious software that allows cybercriminals to steal personal information such as login IDs, passwords, credit card information and other confidential information," Payne said. "More often than not, these attacks are not targeted at specific individuals, but rather at any computer that is not properly secured."
-compiled by Callie Herod
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