FUTA student hacks Premium Times site, gets indefinite suspension

Afolabi Emmanuel, a final year student of the Department of Food Science and Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, has been placed on an indefinite suspension, TopNaija reports.

Emmanuel was sanctioned by the varsity for his alleged involvement in the hacking of the website of an online news medium, Premium Times.

In a statement issued on Wednesday by the Deputy Director, Corporate Communications, FUTA, Mr Adegbenro Adebanjo, the student was alleged to have committed the act, which constituted misconduct and misuse of the university’s information technology infrastructure.

According to the statement, the university received a complaint from Premium Times about denial of service attack on its website “between 28th and 29th of February, 2020, through a concerted vulnerability scanning by a person using the IT infrastructure of the university.”

“Following the complaint, the university management initiated an investigation and it was discovered that Emmanuel carried out the alleged act of misconduct using the log in credentials of two members of staff without authorisation to perpetrate the act,” Adebanjo said.

The university spokesman noted that the notification of indefinite suspension addressed to Emmanuel read in part, “In the extant Student’s Handbook of Information, your action is misconduct to abuse the use of university IT infrastructure.

“While still putting in place an arrangement to give you an opportunity to explain yourself, you are hereby placed on an indefinite suspension retroactively from 18th of March, 2020.”

Adebanjo explained that the suspension implied that Emmanuel should not be found anywhere in or near the precincts of the institution throughout the period of his indefinite suspension.

“The university deplores such behaviour and reiterates that it will continue to visit such aberrant act with the full weight of the rules and regulations governing students’ behaviour and conduct off and on the campus. For the avoidance of doubt, only students who are worthy in learning and character can lay claim to and be addressed as FUTA students,” Adebanjo added