According to the Associated Press, former NFL coach Matt Weiss has denied the charges against him over allegedly hacking athletes’ intimate photos. Weiss was formerly a Baltimore Ravens and University of Michigan assistant football coach.
He spent two seasons with the University of Michigan but was fired in 2023 for failing to cooperate with the school’s investigation of his access to computers. His house was searched by police in January 2023, shortly before he was fired. Weiss stated at the time that he was cooperating and looking “forward to the matter being resolved.”
He was co-offensive coordinator for the Michigan Wolverines in 2022 when the team were 13-1 and therefore had a strong winning streak. He also spent more than a decade with the NFL’s Ravens prior to this in various coaching roles.
He is charged with hacking into the computer accounts of thousands of college athletes to source intimate images, mainly of women. Weiss appeared in federal court in Detroit four days after a 14-page indictment was filed. He is more specifically accused of unauthorised computer access and identity theft from 2015 until early 2023. This includes 14 counts of unauthorised computer access and 10 counts of identity theft. Weiss allegedly: “cracked the encryption protecting the passwords, assisted by research that he did on the internet.”
It’s been reported that Weiss accessed the databases of over 100 colleges and universities that were maintained by a third-party vendor, Keffer Development Services, and proceeded to download personal information, including medical data, of over 150,000 athletes, according to the indictment. He then accessed social media, email and cloud storage accounts of over 2,000 athletes, as well as more than 1,300 students or alumni from schools across the country, the indictment states.
The indictment reads: “Weiss primarily targeted female college athletes. He researched and targeted these women based on their school affiliation, athletic history and physical characteristics. His goal was to obtain private photographs and videos never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners.”
Weiss kept notes on photos and videos that he downloaded, commenting on the bodies and sexual preferences and sometimes returning years later to look for new images, the indictment said.
“Our office will move aggressively to prosecute computer hacking to protect the private accounts of our citizens,” Julie Beck, the acting U.S. attorney in Detroit, expressed.
Weiss, alongside his attorney, Douglas Mullkoff, waived a public reading of the indictment and declined to comment on the case.
Additionally, a class action lawsuit has also been filed on behalf of a former University of Michigan female gymnast and a previous member of the women’s soccer team. According to attorney, Parker Stinar, the university failed “to supervise and monitor Weiss and as a result plaintiffs and thousands of others have had their privacy illegally invaded.”
