He’s pretty brilliant for a kid with bad grades.
A tech-savvy Staten Island high school student who studied advanced computer programming at an elite computer camp used his skills to hack into a secure computer system and improve his scores, sources told The Post on Thursday.
Eric Walstrom, 16, a junior at New Dorp High School, made it past a password barrier and software security system using a computer in the school and set up the network so he could access it from his smartphone, the sources said.
Between Dec. 14 and Feb. 9, he pulled up his report cards and transcripts and “changed those grades,” according to a criminal complaint.
“You’d think a kid smart enough to hack his school’s computers would already have good grades. Maybe the DOE should hire him to expose weaknesses in their security firewalls,” a law enforcement source said.
He was caught when a school IT worker noticed the unauthorized log-ins to the system, sources said. The school notified police, and Walstrom was arrested Wednesday.
He was charged as an adult with forgery, computer trespass, unauthorized use of a computer, computer tampering and criminal possession of forgery devices.
Walstrom learned some of his high-tech tricks at a summer camp held at several universities.
“The school teaches you advanced computer programming . . . He used what he learned for evil. He went the malicious way and focused on hacking and manipulation,” said Sean Morris, 16, who also attended the iD Programming Academy for Teens.
“Maybe he can get a Secret Service job later on!”
The camp teaches computer infrastructure programing and coding languages such as Java and C++, which some attendees use to build their own software and apps, Morris said.
Other New Dorp High School students called Walstrom an “average student” who simply isn’t that interested in school.
“He’s just bored and isn’t into school at all. He’s definitely super quiet, and he keeps to himself. . . . No one really pays any attention to him,” Morris said.
New Dorp High School earned mostly “good” rankings on a 2014 survey by the Department of Education. Roughly 75 percent of students graduate in four years, the report said.
Walstrom is the son of beloved firefighter John Walstrom, who helped rescue victims on 9/11 and died of an illness in 2013.
He and his mom, Theresa Fournier-Walstrom, declined to comment on Thursday.