The Federal University of Technology, Akure, (FUTA) has suspended a student, Mr Afolabi Emmanuel, for allegedly hacking the website of Premium Times, an online news publication.
The suspension was made known in Akure on Wednesday in a statement made available by Mr Adegbenro Adebayo, the university’s Deputy Director of Corporate Communications.
Adebayo said that the alleged act of Emmanuel, a final year student of the Department of Food Science and Technology, constituted a misconduct and misuse of the university’s IT infrastructure.
In the letter of suspension dated Aug. 5, the university noted that it received a complaint from Premium Times about a Denial of Service/(DOS) attack on its website between Feb. 28 and Feb. 29 through concerted vulnerability scanning by a person using the IT infrastructure of the university.
He said following the complaint, the university management initiated an investigation and it was discovered that Emmanuel carried out the alleged act of misconduct.
Emmanuel, he alleged, had used the log in credentials of two members of staff without authorisation to perpetrate the act.
Adebayo said while the university was still putting in place an arrangement to give Emmanuel an opportunity to explain himself, he was being placed on indefinite suspension retroactively from March 18.
He said that the effect of the suspension was that Emmanuel should not be found anywhere in or near the precincts of the institution throughout the period.
” The university deplores such behaviour and reiterates that it will continue to visit such aberrant act with the full weight of the rules and regulations governing students’ behaviour and conduct off and on the campus.
“For the avoidance of doubt, only students who are worthy in learning and character can lay claim to and be addressed as FUTA students,” he said.