A former assistant football coach from the University of Michigan has been charged with hacking into student-athlete databases from over 100 colleges and universities. Federal prosecutors say Matthew Weiss, 42, accessed the personal and medical records of about 150,000 people.
The U.S. Justice Department announced a 24-count indictment against Weiss, who worked as Michigan’s co-offensive coordinator for two seasons. Before that, he worked for the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL. Prosecutors say he illegally accessed student databases between 2015 and January 2023.
Weiss allegedly targeted female college athletes, using their school, sports history, and appearance to find private photos and videos. He is accused of hacking social media, email, and cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 athletes, as well as 1,300 other students and alumni.
Prosecutors claim he gained access by cracking passwords and exploiting security weaknesses in universities’ systems. The data he accessed was stored by Keffer Development Services, a company that provides software for tracking student athlete injuries. Keffer says it works with 600 organizations in 48 states.
Weiss has been charged with 14 counts of unauthorized computer access and 10 counts of identity theft. Each hacking charge could bring up to five years in prison, and each identity theft charge carries a maximum of two years.
Michigan fired Weiss in January 2023 after an investigation into computer access crimes at the team’s facility. The university declined to comment on his indictment, referring questions to the Justice Department.
The FBI worked with the University of Michigan Police Department on the case. Officials say they will continue aggressively pursuing computer hacking cases to protect people’s personal information.
