Student Faces Felony Charge in UT Registration Site Hacking
UT police say the student clogged the registrar website with information and requests, temporarily taking it offline. Photo by Caleb Miller for KUT News.
A University of Texas at Austin student is facing a felony charge for allegedly hacking into UT’s computer system.
University police say 19-year-old Garret Phillips flooded the registration site with information in April, shutting it down temporarily when students were trying to sign up for summer and fall classes.
But UTPD Sgt. Charles Bonnet says no personal information was put at risk.
“The type of attack that was launched was just a flood of information into the site which caused it to crash. There was no effort to extract any kind of information or view any kind of information,” Bonnet says.
The university has now put backup programs in place to prevent another attack of this sort from shutting down websites.
If Phillips is convicted of the attack, he could face up to two years behind bars.
