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COLLEGE FOOTBALL: DEC 04 Big Ten Championship Game - Michigan v Iowa

Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty

Former Michigan football assistant coach Matt Weiss has been indicted on federal charges after authorities found out he was engaging in some certifiably creepy behavior.

Weiss was accused of hacking into computer systems belonging to over 100 universities and hundreds of thousands of student-athletes in an effort to spy on women.

The U.S. Attorney’s office claims the former coach started the behavior in 2015 when he went through a third-party vendor, Keffer Development Services, to crack into university databases through people who worked there, like athletic directors and trainers. Through those accounts, he then downloaded confidential info like the medical records of more than 150,000 students, along with their passwords.

Thanks to his own online research, he figured out the students’ passwords to more things, like their email and social media accounts. He’d either crack them through typical hints like birthdays and pet names or reset them if they proved too difficult.

But with access to that much information, his interest zeroed in on female athletes’ accounts in hopes that through his hacking, he’d unearth personal photos on their private devices and cloud storage.

“Weiss primarily targeted female college athletes,” the filing reads. “He researched and targeted these women based on their school affiliation, athletic history, and characteristics. His goal was to obtain private photographs and videos, never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners.”

Unfortunately, the case says that the 42-year-old successfully downloaded “personal, intimate, digital photographs and videos.” Even after finding the content, he’d revisit it —sometimes years later— and return to the accounts to see if they’d uploaded more.

“Weiss kept notes on individuals whose photographs and videos that he viewed, including notes commenting on their bodies and sexual preferences,” the indictment reads.

In the 24-count indictment, Weiss was hit with 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft for the scheme that ended in January 2023.

“Our office will move aggressively to prosecute computer hacking to protect the private accounts of our citizens,” said acting U.S. Attorney Julie Beck. “We stand ready with our law enforcement partners to bring those who illegally invade the privacy of others to justice.”

If found guilty, Weiss faces up to five years in prison for each charge of unauthorized access to computers and two years for each charge of identity theft.

The University of Michigan refuses to discuss the “personnel matter,” instead directing the press to contact the FBI.

After the firing, Weiss tweeted, “I have nothing but respect for the University of Michigan and the people who make it such a great place. I look forward to putting this matter behind me and returning my focus to the game I love.”

See how social media is reacting below.

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