Teens Charged With Loading Spyware, Changing Grades

June 19, 2008 — -- Two Orange County, California, teenagers have been charged with breaking into high school offices and using stolen usernames and passwords to change lackluster grades to A's.

Omar Khan and Tanvir Singh, both 18, are facing multiple felony charges following a series of break-ins at Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Khan was arrested Monday, and Singh was expected to turn himself into court on Tuesday for arraignment.

According to prosecutors, Khan changed the D's and C's he was receiving in Spanish, Calculus and English to two A's and a B+. He's also charged with stealing tests before they had been given and using a stolen username and password to break into school computers and change the grades of 12 other students.

He is also alleged to have installed spyware software on the computer hosting the school district's grades database so that he could remotely access this system.

The police were called in after Khan requested a copy of his transcript and school officials noticed his stellar grades, the Orange County district attorney's office said.

If convicted, Khan could be sentenced to more than 38 years in prison.

Singh, who faces fewer charges, faces three years in prison. He's charged with breaking into the school with Khan in order to steal an English test on May 19. According to court filings he sent a text message to Khan around 4 p.m. planning the crime. "Hey wana go to the school tonight," he wrote. "I need someone with balls there with me."