14 DAY TRIAL // University of Georgia (UGA) police are confident that the man who committed suicide back in December 2012, 26-year-old Charles Staples Stell, is the one who hacked into the university’s systems, and the one who stole the records of 8,500 individuals.
“This case has been closed based on the fact it was apparent to us (Stell) was the offender,” UGA Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said, cited by Online Athens.
Williamson says that no evidence has been found to indicate that the stolen information has been used for illegal purposes.
It’s uncertain what Stell had planned to do with the identities he stole, but investigators have determined that he acted alone.
Additional documents filed in court last week revealed that the hacker utilized the HideMyAss service to hide his online footprints.
He managed to gain access to the records of 8,500 people after hijacking the accounts of UGA’s director of Enterprise Information Technology Services.
Investigators were able to track down Stell based on the IP addresses he used during the breach.
In his suicide note, he told his family that he wasn’t able to face the consequences of the mistakes he made.