New trend? Student allegedly hacked school to raise grades

Student hackers may be schools’ next worst nightmare.

In what could be the sign of a new trend, a New York City high school student is accused of hacking his school’s computer system and raising his grades over a period of roughly two months.

{mosads}Eric Walstrom, 16, of Staten Island apparently used his knowledge of computer programming to breach a password-protected system and set up a network that could be accessed from his cellphone.

He was arrested this week and charged with forgery, computer trespass, unauthorized use of a computer, computer tampering and criminal possession of forgery devices, according to the New York Post.

Walstrom reportedly learned his skills at a summer camp that taught coding languages. He was described as an average student who is not terribly interested in school.

“You’d think a kid smart enough to hack his school’s computers would already have good grades,” a law enforcement source told the Post. “Maybe the [Department of Education] should hire him to expose weaknesses in their security firewalls.”

A fellow student of Walstrom’s had a different take. “Maybe he can get a Secret Service job later on!” Sean Morris, 16, told the paper.

—This post was updated Friday at 6:09 p.m.