A 17 year old Gates youth is facing charges that he hacked into personal information contained in computers in the Gates Chili Central School District.
According to the criminal complaint filed by Gates Police, Ajay Bhattacharyya was able to get into the computer account of Kimberle Ward, the previous district superintendent. Her account was deactivated after she left the district last December, but authorities say it was reactivated last February, in an unauthorized manner.
It’s alleged that Bhattacharyya used Ward’s account to do things like generating a report of disciplinary records of students, and also a report that contained detailed personal information about students.
Bhattacharyya had been allowed to use a district-owned laptop, and when the district took it back in March and did an analysis of the computer, they also found files that include detailed maps of every building in the district and software that could be used to view every surveillance camera in the district.
He now faces 8 counts including computer trespass and identity theft. The Gates Chili district has mailed nearly 5,800 letters to parents and guardians of students whose personal information was either accessed or accessible by Bhattacharyya.
Police say that Bhattacharyya was ordered held in county jail on $10,000 cash bail or $15,000 bond pending another court date. They also say that the investigation is ongoing with the potential of more arrests.
The Gates Chili School District released this statement:
As previously communicated to the Gates Chili school community, the Gates Chili Central School District has been investigating unauthorized computer access to privileged portions of its network by students.
Digital forensic experts traced the students’ activities and law enforcement was contacted. As a result of the investigation, the experts concluded that no private information was removed or copied from the district’s network. Some private information may have been viewed by these students.
The digital forensic experts concluded that social security numbers were not accessed. Additionally, there was no manipulation or attempted manipulation of any information.
The district takes this matter very seriously. The actions of the involved students are highly inappropriate and are being addressed. Gates Chili CSD has taken measures to prevent any further unauthorized access.
