Man arrested for hacking into Junta de Andalucía's education platform and altering academic grades

An investigation by the technological crimes unit of Jaén's National Police provincial headquarters has led to the arrest of a man in Seville accused of hacking into teachers' accounts on Sénaca, the Andalusian education system and altering academic qualifications.

Operation Drawer began following a complaint from a teacher at the San Juan Bosco Secondary School Jaén city, according to a statement issued by the force on Monday 25 August.

The statement explained that someone had breached the security of the Séneca educational platform by hacking into and impersonating email accounts belonging to teachers with positions of responsibility within the educational organisation.

Investigators detected that the work email addresses of up to 13 teachers from different universities in Andalucía, including Córdoba, Seville, Huelva, Cádiz and Almería among others, who were responsible for preparing the Selectividad university entrance exams for this year, had been hacked.

"The cybercriminal managed to illegitimately access the system, altering academic qualifications, both in his personal file and that of people in his close environment," the statement said.

During the operation a search was carried out at the home of the person under investigation in Seville. The suspect has been arrested for illegal access to computer systems, identity theft and forgery of documents.

Several computer terminals were also seized during the house raid, which were used to commit the acts described, as well as a notebook with notes on the modified qualifications, SUR's sister newspaper Ideal has learned.

"The action of the technological crimes unit of Jaén has allowed not only to identify and neutralise the threat, but also to alert the public administration about an important security breach in the Junta de Andalucía's Seneca system, correcting its vulnerability," the CNP has stated.

Operation Drawer "underlines the commitment of the National Police in the fight against cybercrime and the protection of the integrity of computer systems that support essential public services such as education" the statement said.