[dabigv13]

I'm at bit confused, the article apart from the above quoted line seems to indicate he researched information about these people and then used that to guess their passwords. 

Weiss cracked the students' encrypted passwords, the indictment said, helped from his own research on the internet.

Weiss whittled down his pool of targets to more than 2,000 student athletes, breaking into their social media, email and other accounts by guessing or resetting their passwords, the indictment said. Through further research, he obtained students' personal information, such as maiden names, pet names, places of birth and nicknames — all of which, the indictment said, helped him gain access to yet more information and photos.

I'm guessing the initial reference to "downloading passwords" is sloppy writing but hard to say. In any case, a good reminder of the importance of strong passwords.

[dabigv13]

I'm at bit confused, the article apart from the above quoted line seems to indicate he researched information about these people and then used that to guess their passwords. 

Weiss cracked the students' encrypted passwords, the indictment said, helped from his own research on the internet.

Weiss whittled down his pool of targets to more than 2,000 student athletes, breaking into their social media, email and other accounts by guessing or resetting their passwords, the indictment said. Through further research, he obtained students' personal information, such as maiden names, pet names, places of birth and nicknames — all of which, the indictment said, helped him gain access to yet more information and photos.

I'm guessing the initial reference to "downloading passwords" is sloppy writing but hard to say. In any case, a good reminder of the importance of strong passwords.