Ex-Ravens and Michigan assistant charged with accessing thousands of college athletes’ ‘intimate digital photographs and videos’
Former Michigan co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss is facing over 20 federal charges for allegedly hacking into the accounts of thousands of college athletes and students across the country to access their “personal, intimate digital photographs and videos” while he was employed by the school.
Weiss was fired in January of 2023 for alleged computer access crimes and the FBI was confirmed to be involved in an investigation into the allegations in October of that year. Thursday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced that Weiss had been charged with 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft.
Before working at Michigan under former coach Jim Harbaugh for two seasons, Weiss worked for the Baltimore Ravens under Harbaugh’s brother, John. According to federal prosecutors, Weiss began illegally accessing accounts when he was with the Ravens.
“According to the indictment, between approximately 2015 and January 2023, Weiss gained unauthorized access to student-athlete databases of more than 100 colleges and universities that were maintained by a third-party vendor,” a statement from United States Attorney Julie Beck said. “After gaining access to these databases, Weiss downloaded the personally identifiable information and medical data of more than 150,000 athletes. Using the information that he obtained from the student-athlete databases and his own internet research, Weiss was able to obtain access to the social media, email and/or cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 target athletes. Weiss also illegally obtained access to the social media, email and/or cloud storage accounts of more than 1,300 additional students and/or alumni from universities across the country.”
“Once Weiss obtained access to these accounts, he downloaded personal, intimate digital photographs and videos that were never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners.”
According to the indictment, Weiss targeted female athletes and “researched and targeted these women based on their school affiliation, athletic history, and physical characteristics.”
He’s accused of keeping notes about physical appearances and characteristics of the women whose accounts he accessed and downloaded the passwords they used for their accounts through a third-party vendor. He’s even accused of researching personal information like mother’s maiden names, pets and dates of birth for some women so that he could guess or reset their passwords to personal accounts.
The indictment also accuses Weiss of repeatedly accessing some accounts months or years after he first gained access to look for new photos and videos.
Weiss was placed on leave after he was accused of illegal activities at Michigan’s Schembechler Hall football facility in December of 2022. He was fired after he didn’t attend a meeting with school officials regarding the allegations.
“After a review of university policies, the athletic department has terminated the appointment of co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss,” a statement from Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said at the time of Weiss’ firing. “Consistent with university policy, we will have no further comment on this personnel matter.”
