Former University of Michigan assistant football coach Matthew Weiss has been indicted on federal charges. He is accused of hacking into the student-athlete databases of over 100 universities, accessing personal and medical data of about 150,000 individuals. Federal prosecutors allege that Weiss used the Keffer Development Services platform, a third-party vendor managing these databases, to gain unauthorized access from 2015 to January 2023.
The indictment reveals that Weiss targeted female athletes by researching their school affiliations, athletic backgrounds, and physical features. He is said to have used this information to access private photographs and videos. Weiss allegedly compromised over 150 accounts and even exploited vulnerabilities in university account authentication systems to escalate his access to sensitive data.
In addition to his hacking activities, Weiss is accused of accessing the social media and email accounts of over 3,000 athletes, students, and alumni. Investigators claim that Weiss used various techniques, including cracking encryption and searching for leaked login credentials from data breaches, to infiltrate these accounts. He reportedly maintained detailed notes on the individuals he targeted, sometimes returning to these accounts months or years later.
Weiss faces multiple charges, including 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, he could face up to five years for each hacking charge and two years for each identity theft charge. The FBI and the University of Michigan Police Department are actively involved in the case, while Weiss’s previous employer, the Baltimore Ravens, has not commented on the matter.
