QuickWire: Would-Be Medical Student Sentenced for Hacking Attempts

A federal judge in Alexandria, Va., has sentenced a University of Michigan graduate to three months in prison and seven months in a halfway house for attempting to improve his scores on the Medical College Admission Test by hacking into the Association of American Medical Colleges’ computers—and, when he failed, paying others to hack in for him.

Bosung Shim, a 24-year-old resident of Rockville, Md., had previously attempted to break into the University of Michigan’s computer system. When he was unsuccessful, he forged a Michigan transcript, paying $1,000 for special paper similar to that used by the university, according to The Washington Post. He had a GPA “barely over 3.0,” prosecutors said, but the faked transcript helped him get a research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health from September 2012 to September 2013.

The hacking attempts cost the medical-colleges association $31,600, the Post reported. Mr. Shim admitted the hacking attempts to Secret Service agents in March and pleaded guilty in October.

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• Source: Washingtonpost