FUTA suspends final year student for hacking into newspaper’s website
By Collins Mbakwe
The Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) has slammed an indefinite suspension on a final-year student of the institution who hacked into the website of an online news publication, the Premium Times.
According to the institution, the student, Afolabi Emmanuel of the Department of Food Science and Technology, was suspended on Wednesday.
In a statement signed by the university’s Deputy Director, Corporate Communications, Adegbenro Adebanjo, the act by the student constituted misconduct and misuse of the university’s IT infrastructure. It was gathered that the university had received a complaint from Premium Times about a Denial of Service (DOS) attack on its website between 28th and 29th February 2020 through a concerted vulnerability scanning by a person using the IT infrastructure of the institution.
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Following the complaint, the university management initiated an investigation and it was discovered that Emmanuel carried out the alleged act of misconduct using the login credentials of two members of staff without authorization to perpetrate the act.
The indefinite suspension letter by the university read in parts: “In the extant Student’s Handbook of Information, your action is misconduct to abuse the use of University IT Infrastructure. While still putting in place an arrangement to give you an opportunity to explain yourself, you are hereby placed on an indefinite suspension retroactively from 18th March 2020.
“In effect, Emmanuel should not be found anywhere in or near the precincts of the Federal University throughout the period of his indefinite suspension. The university deplores such behavior and reiterates that it will continue to visit such aberrant acts with the full weight of the rules and regulations governing students’ behavior and conduct off and on the campus.“For the avoidance of doubt, only students who are worthy in learning and character can lay claim to and be addressed as FUTA students.”
