Hacker Impersonates Student to Install Malware on University Computers

A 23-years hacker received a suspended prison sentence this week in UK after impersonating a student to access university computers and infect them with malware.

Daniel Woo, a Bulgarian national living in Hans Crescent, South West London, was caught and arrested on November 1, 2006 as he was tampering with computers at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

IT staff sent to investigate a network problem spotted Woo in a computer room and called the police. It was quickly established that he wasn't a student as he had claimed.

An investigation conducted by detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service's Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) revealed that Woo used the "Cain and Able" program to hack student passwords and intercept network traffic.

Cain and Able is an application distributed as a password recovery software for Microsoft Windows, but it is also popular with hackers.

In addition to the many password cracking features, its functionality extends to launching ARP spoofing attacks and sniffing network packets.

Using this program Woo was also able to access hundreds of emails containing the personal and financial details of students. Some of the stolen information was later used in fraud.

When the police initially questioned the hacker, he denied being in the computer room, but investigators established that he was there at least ten times between October and November 2006.

After inspecting his computers and mobile phones, it was discovered that he was also responsible for similar activities at University of Coventry and was possibly planning to target University of Northampton too.

Woo pleaded guilty to charges under the Computer Misuse Act and on Wednesday, 24 November, 2010, he received a 36-week suspended prison sentence.

He was also ordered to two year of supervision, 200 hours of unpaid work and the payment of £21,000 for compensation and other costs.