ECU Fires Admitted Computer Hacker
GREENVILLE, N.C.
East Carolina University has fired a computer services employee who admitted to hacking into the school's computer network nearly three years ago.
Nolan Waithe Grant was fired about two weeks after East Carolina computer services hired him to work on its help desk. A university statement did not explain why he was fired, but ECU spokesman John Durham said the dismissal "was not related to the hacking." State personnel confidentiality rules prevented Durham from elaborating, he said.
Grant pleaded guilty in December 1997 to hacking into East Carolina University's Unix computer network and denying access to an authorized user, both misdemeanors.
He and Jason Cooper Hines, both students at the time, were arrested in November 1997 following a State Bureau of Investigation inquiry into a university computer system shutdown earlier that year. The Unix network is used for faculty-student communication. Their actions shut down the system and destroyed some students' files.
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