Tenafly High School has informed parents earlier this month that a student has gained access to its internal IT systems, changed grades to improve his GPA, and sent out college applications immediately after.

The New Jersey-based high school has not named the student but said it informed authorities, and law enforcement is currently handling the investigation.

According to reports in local media [1, 2], the teen gained access to Genesis, the school district's student management system, and Naviance, a nationwide IT system that allows colleges to access school records, grades, and other documents for the purpose of evaluating applications.

Investigators said the student had good grades but appears to have hacked the school due to the pressure of keeping his grades high and being accepted at an important college. The student sent out college applications to several Ivy League colleges.

A guidance counselor noticed the changes in the student's grades and alerted the high school, who later discovered the hack, reverted the grade changes, and revoke the college applications.

Previous student hacking cases

This isn't the only case of students hacking their schools this year. In October, it came to light that a Kansas University student used a hardware keylogger to collect credentials for the student grading system and change his grades.

In November, the FBI arrested a former University of Iowa student for hacking his alma mater and changing grades on 90 different occasions.

Earlier in March, the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel expelled a student for hacking the email inboxes of some of his professors.