Per Josh Henschke, the Feds are NOT involved in the Weiss investigation. DPS reports offer some clues.

Submitted by FrankMurphy on January 18th, 2023 at 12:04 AM

This would seem to rule out certain crimes that can only be prosecuted under federal law.

Can confirm the Matt Weiss situation is NOT federal, which rules out some of the nefarious (and unfair) speculation out there.

I don’t know much more other than what it’s not.

— Josh Henschke (@JoshHenschke) January 18, 2023

There's also a UofM DPS report (DPS reports are public record) about an employee reporting that someone at Schembechler Hall gained unauthorized access to a UMich email account.

Public records show ‘fraudulent activity’ regarding emails reported at Schembechler Hall.

STORY: https://t.co/HxZq4Bsf8v https://t.co/UGTG79WmSf

— Josh Henschke (@JoshHenschke) January 18, 2023

ahw1982

January 18th, 2023 at 9:03 AM ^

DPSS report says "An employee reported fraudulent activity involving someone accessing university emails accounts without authorization. Upon further investigation, It was found that a crime may have been committed."

It's possible the DPSS report is entirely unrelated to Matt Weiss.

It's also possible it is related to Matt Weiss.

If I had to guess, some kind of gross stalking situation.  However, I'll shoot the moon and bet $10 it's "Jim Harbaugh to NFL rumors were fake, based on an elaborate sting operation involving fake, planted e-mails that appeared to be from NFL teams, to suss out who has been accessing Jim's e-mail account.  Matt Weiss apparently correctly guessed that Jim's e-mail password is 'milksteak'."

SalvatoreQuattro

January 18th, 2023 at 12:18 AM ^

Whoever was using his computer  did so in order to access someone else’s email account.

The only way they  could gain access is if they  knew the victim’s level two password and duo information.

This is very odd.

I'mTheStig

January 18th, 2023 at 10:30 AM ^

Lots of people do.  MFA fatigue is a real thing.  Especially if one works in gov't, healthcare, or a bank -- where their IT and security departments are commonly staffed by fucking morons.

Ping identity has a product now called PingOne Risk that learns your behaviors and over time can determine what is or is not an authorized access attempt. 

After some time, a user really doesn't get prompted to swipe, tap, or enter a code any more.

And since MFA is still enabled, behind the scenes, one still has the security against password attacks that MFA provides.

Leatherstocking Blue

January 18th, 2023 at 8:35 AM ^

The most positive spin is that someone else was using his computer during that time period.

I worked at a hospital in the IT division, then took a position in a different department. A month later, I stopped by to visit the Help Desk staff to shoot the breeze and one of them said, "Hey, you have some interesting porn on your work computer."  Naturally, I played dumb while trying to think of how porn got on my old computer. One of the techs pulled up my hard drive (which they download in case you realized you saved something you needed directly to the computer), and started reading off the names to the various sites. Then he said, oh, looks like the time stamps are from 2 am after you had already left the department.

Moral of the story, become good friends with your IT department.

wolpherine2000

January 18th, 2023 at 1:27 AM ^

If I may add to the speculation... The most reasonable explanation suggests this was simply a contemporary reenactment of Seinfeld S2E4 in which George leaves a long embarrassing message on a woman's answering machine*. Regretting the gaffe, he doubles down, leaving a series of increasingly unhinged messages in an attempt to correct his error until the situation becomes untenable and George resolves himself that he must break into her apartment to replace the tape before she returns home from vacation... Kinda weird that he would do this kind of roleplaying in his place of employment but football isn't like normal work.

*Archaic: A device for recording telephone messages on magnetic media common prior to the widespread use of email.

bonsai

January 18th, 2023 at 8:04 AM ^

Then Matt Weiss' nephew discovered the crime, and decided to report him to teach him a lesson, figuring he'd just get a warning. Police surrounded Weiss' house, and the commander yelled 'Swarm, swarm' before charging inside and arresting him. As he was dragged off, Uncle Matt declared, "I'm old!"

BKBlue94

January 18th, 2023 at 12:32 AM ^

Does anyone know the law around this? Really curious what level of email break in would 1. Alert anyone that it had happened. 2. Rise to the level of a crime 3. Trigger a raid on his home

gremlin3

January 18th, 2023 at 10:30 AM ^

I'm no lawyer, but use of the word "fraudulent" is interesting to me here. From what I know about the legal use of that word, it would mean that Weiss is suspected of:

  1. lying
  2. knowingly lying 
  3. with intent to gain something, especially financially

Calling all MGoLawyers to add depth and accuracy.

LKLIII

January 18th, 2023 at 12:36 AM ^

My WAG is that it’s a jealous lover situation. 
 

Exams ended 12/19. 
 

My bet is Schembechler Hall has a TON of personnel working there, but that most of them go home for break along w the rest of the university. Only the top staff & a skeleton crew of admin stay behind for bowl prep & logistics. 

Maybe he was having an affair with one of the support/admin staffers & he’s the jealous type. People do crazy things when infatuated.

She leaves for break & leaves her work email open, he’s working late on bowl prep & takes the opportunity of the deserted office to peak at her email. Maybe he sends emails from her account to some other person, maybe he doesn’t. 
 

Winter Term starts 1/4. 
 

The lover returns from break & either independently discovers he was poking around in her email, or maybe he confronts her with info he got from her emails. Either way, a huge argument ensues. She gets royally pissed about the violation of privacy & decides to report it to campus safety. 
 

Boom. 
 

Again, just my WAG but the timeline & motivations would all fit the circumstances thus far. 

chuck bass

January 18th, 2023 at 1:00 AM ^

Bio says married with 3 kids.

The Duo verification is throwing me off. How do you “hack” into a U-M account when you need a cell phone belonging to them to accept the Duo prompt?

That seems to suggest the U-M account was already logged in, like maybe someone’s iPad and he peeked at their emails?

Blue in Paradise

January 18th, 2023 at 1:04 AM ^

This is actually what I was thinking when I saw the update around fraudulent e-mail activity.

Either Matt Weiss moonlights as a Nigerian prince (which should be unlikely given his salary) or the more likely cyberstalking of a woman (or man) he is in a relationship with (or just obsessed with).

I am putting my money on the latter.