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Dozens of women sued the University of Michigan after a football coach allegedly accessed private photos and information.
More than 40 current and former student-athletes are suing the University of Michigan, alleging that former football coach Matt Weiss exploited systemic data security failures to steal their intimate images and private information, according to an amended lawsuit filed Friday.
The plaintiffs, including former Grambling State softball star McKenzie Johnson, accuse the university of failing to protect sensitive data stored by a third-party contractor, Keffer Development Services, which Weiss allegedly used to access private cloud accounts, emails, and social media profiles of at least 3,300 female athletes.
Johnson, who had no ties to the University of Michigan, said she was notified by the U.S. Department of Justice that she was among Weiss’s victims but was never contacted by the university.
“Despite knowing in February 2023 that Coach Weiss was a vicious predator with possession of private and sensitive documents, Mr. Johnson was never informed by the University,” the lawsuit states.
Weiss, who served as the Wolverines’ offensive coordinator until January 2023, faces more than 20 federal charges in connection with the alleged hack. The lawsuit says he used his university credentials to infiltrate poorly secured athlete databases and crack encrypted passwords, ultimately downloading personal content from more than 2,000 accounts.”
Attorneys for the plaintiff filed an emergency motion for an injunction demanding the university relinquish all remaining digital evidence to a neutral forensic firm, saying U-M cannot be trusted to retail the files.
“The time for the University to behave responsibly has passed and now it is critical that the University be ordered to relinquish control of Plaintiff’s private information and intimate files,” Attorney Jon Marko said in a statement. “There are nationally renowned data security experts who can safeguard the evidence in this case and prevent the University from inflicting more irreparable harm on Plaintiffs. There is no room for compromise. The University cannot be trusted to handle private documents of an intimate nature that were never meant for anyone other than the young woman. The thought of countless University employees still having access to what was stolen by Coach Weiss is terrifying.”
The lawsuit accuses the university, its regents, Weiss, and Keffer of violating federal privacy laws, Title IX, and Michigan’s Identity Theft Protection Act, along with a host of other civil rights and negligence claims. It also seeks class-action status on behalf of all people whose accounts were accessed.
