Man targeted 150 email accounts of female MSU students, FBI says

Her email and Facebook account had been breached once before, so when a Missouri State University student noticed something similar happening in January, she notified the university.

She complained to MSU that an unauthorized person was attempting to access her student account. Three days later the FBI was notified, according to an FBI warrant. An investigation by MSU and the FBI found that she was one of about 150 students — almost all women — who had their accounts targeted by a single IP address connected to a male student, the warrant said.

The man behind that IP address changed the passwords of about 50 student accounts by successfully guessing security questions, the warrant says, and he tried to do the same to about a hundred more accounts.

"All legitimate activity from this IP address was associated with one student, exclusively, and no others," the warrant said.

An IP address is the number assigned to a computer or other device that accesses the Internet, and the warrant said the IP address in this case was connected to Matthew Allen Childers, 25.

The warrant, which was executed earlier this month, was to obtain records and electronic equipment at Childers' residence in Springfield that could be evidence of a criminal act.

The News-Leader contacted MSU for comment, and, according to school officials, passwords of accounts can be reset by correctly answering one security question. Officials said that a notification is sent to students when their password is changed via their student email and an alternate email if one is on file.

Because of this incident, MSU contacted approximately 15 students of the about 150 students targeted, officials said, explaining that those 15 were also student employees who could have had personal information, like tax forms, accessed. The remaining students either had their passwords reset or reset their passwords themselves, officials said.

Questions were answered via email by MSU spokeswoman Suzanne Shaw and Chief Information Officer Jeff Morrissey.