Breach, Threat Management, Data Security

College grad gets prison time for MCAT hack

A Rockville, Va. man will serve prison time for attempting to hack into the computer systems of the Association of Medical Colleges to alter his Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores.

Bosung Shim, a 24-year-old University of Michigan graduate and son of two South Korean doctors, was charged in October with intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization. On Friday, a federal judge sentenced him to three months in prison, followed by seven months of reporting to a halfway house.

Under pressure to enter medical school, Shim attempted to illegally access the networks of the association to change his struggling MCAT scores. When his efforts were unsuccessful, he paid hackers $6,000 to aid him.

The association paid tens of thousands of dollars to fix the damages caused by the attack.

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