By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
Two citizens of Nigeria, who lived in Malaysia, hacked into university computer systems to steal paychecks and tax returns.
Now, they’re behind bars, thanks to partnerships with the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Department of Justice, and Malaysian authorities that enabled the FBI to identify, arrest, and extradite Olayinka Olaniyi and Damilola Soloman Ibiwoye, the FBI said.
Ibiwoye has been sentenced to 39 months in prison and Olaniyi got nearly six years.
“We found their computer folders with documents showing efforts to phish employees at 130 to 140 schools,” FBI agent Tyson Fowler said in a statement. “They would steal a logo and do the work to make it look legitimate.”
According to a story on the FBI website:
The duo sent fraudulent emails to personnel at these institutions in an attempt to gain system credentials. These phishing messages appeared official but they took unsuspecting recipients to fraudulent sites that allowed the criminals to record user names and passwords. Armed with this information, the hackers could then enter the official school systems and use the stolen credentials to reroute employees’ paychecks and access financial documents. Fowler says the hackers were successful in obtaining access at about 20 schools.
