East Northport Teen Among 3 Commack High Students Charged With Hacking Into District's Computer System

Three Commack High School students were arrested Tuesday morning and charged in connection with unauthorized access of the district’s computer system during which student grades and schedules were changed, police said.

The following students surrendered to detectives at the Fourth Precinct in Hauppauge, police said:

• Daniel Soares, 17, of Commack
• Alex Mosquera, 17, of East Northport
• Erick Vaysman, 17, of Commack

Commack school officials contacted police in July after they determined an unauthorized person or people had accessed the school district’s network and altered the schedules of approximately 300 students, police said.

The district identified the alterations and corrected schedules prior to distribution to students.

An investigation by Suffolk County Police Computer Crimes Section confirmed schedules were changed and two students’ grades were altered, police said.

Soares is charged with two counts of third degree burglary, three counts of third degree computer tampering, three counts of second degree identity theft, one count of computer trespass and one count of eavesdropping.

Vaysman and Mosquera are each charged with one count of third degree computer tampering and one count of fourth degree criminal solicitation.

The teens are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday at First District Court in Central Islip.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Computer Crime Section detectives at 631-852-6279 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

The Commack School District posted the following statement on its website Tuesday:

“On October 20, 2015, three Commack High School students were arrested by the Suffolk County Police Department in connection to the breach of our network.

Once the breach was discovered, password protection safeguards and network protocols prevented further access to the data management system, and no further private or personal information was accessed. We believe the initial data breach only involved a very limited number of high school student records. Types of information that may have been viewed include student ID numbers, name, address, contact information, and student schedules. Social security numbers are NOT in the student management system.

Due to the ongoing investigation and student privacy laws, we will not release the names of the students involved.

The District continues to cooperate fully with local law enforcement agencies, and our IT Department is working closely with the police to provide digital data to assist law enforcement. In addition, a full electronic security review is underway with a company that specializes in network security.

We will continue to actively seek those who breach the District Code of Conduct, and those who break the law to ensure the integrity of our data system and to protect those who follow the rules.

We know that the actions of a few students do not reflect on the entire student body. From kindergarten through high school graduation, the District teaches and reinforces the attributes that contribute to good character: courtesy, honesty, attaining pride, responsibility, accountability, compassion, tolerance, endurance and respect. With reinforcement and guidance by their families, our students reflect those values.

We continue our efforts to protect private student and staff data and to monitor and reinforce network security within our District. We will inform you of any further developments as permitted by law. Please know that we are doing everything possible to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”