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UGA student accused of hacking system, changing grades

ATHENS, Ga. — A University of Georgia student is facing 80 counts after police say he hacked into a professor's account to change his grades.

Michael Lamon Williams, 21, is a student in the Terry College of Business and a technology services employee. He is facing 71 counts of computer forgery and nine counts of computer trespass.

According to this UGA police report, the professor told investigators someone "unlawfully gained entry into his UGA ID account and changed his password."

Authorities charged Williams last Monday.

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A UGA spokesman sent the following statement:

"While a student employee of Enterprise Information Technology Services, the suspect abused his privileges as an employee and changed grades to benefit himself. The university is conducting a comprehensive review of its practices to make the necessary improvements to prevent this from reoccurring."

Williams has withdrawn from UGA.

Students on campus were surprised by the allegations.

"I don't think that that's very moral thing to do, you know? Society doesn't really work if people can just break the rules whenever they want to,” student Kyle McParland said.

Some students were even more surprised by the number of charges.

"I don't know if he deserves 80 charges but he definitely shouldn't have done that,” student Wynn Mullin said.

Another student said Williams should’ve used his intelligence to study.

"I think it would be harder to hack in then to actually study for your tests,” Mitch Hogan said.