Colleges and universities are facing a new fraud tactic that has made them more susceptible to digital theft. Known as ghost students, hackers are exploiting pandemic-related vulnerabilities to steal millions of dollars in student financial aid.

Over the past five years, the federal government has uncovered more than $350 million in fraud perpetrated by ghost student schemes, said Jason Williams of the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General to ABC News. And that's "only in the universe of what we know and what we have adjudicated."

‘Scourge’ on US colleges
For thousands of colleges inundated with ghost students, these “sophisticated thieves have become a scourge,” said ABC News. The scammers use stolen or fake identities to enroll in online classes and apply for grants and loans, then disappear once they receive the funds. The fraudsters are “robbing the federal government of hundreds of millions of dollars and leaving an untold number of victims.”

It’s a "huge issue," Williams said to ABC. As they steal identities, these loans are “not being repaid.” They are being assigned to people who “don’t even know they have a debt” until the IRS alerts them. Thieves have tried to steal financial aid for decades, but when the pandemic hit, “everybody went to online learning,” which “really did open the door” for more widespread fraud.

In California alone, “nearly a third of all community college applicants in 2024 were identified as fraudulent,” according to the California Community Colleges system. In some cases, professors “discover almost no one in their class is real,” said The Associated Press. 

Fighting back with AI
The federal government is “on the hook for tuition aid lost to scammers,” said ABC News. But it is the community colleges, which “accept almost all applicants through open enrollment,” that often “carry the burden of sniffing out fake applications.” Doing so requires “resources, technology and expertise that many institutions do not possess.” The Department of Education implemented “enhanced fraud controls and identity verification requirements” last year, which “helped schools combat fake applicants.”

Minnesota is using AI to identify new techniques used by ghost students, said Craig Munson, Minnesota’s chief information security officer, to Fortune. “Just as we leverage AI to protect ourselves, the attackers also continue to leverage it in new and interesting ways.” It’s like an “arms race.”

NASA is nearing the final preparations for its first crewed moon mission since the Apollo era, but the mode of transportation has some experts worried. The agency’s Artemis II mission, which will take astronauts on a flyby of the moon, is set to launch in the coming months aboard the Orion spacecraft. But concerns over a key element of the vehicle have led to calls to hold off on the mission.

What are the primary concerns?
The main issue is related to Orion’s heat shield. This coating along the bottom of the spacecraft protects the vehicle from extreme temperatures upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere. Orion’s shield for Artemis II is “nearly identical” to the one used for the uncrewed Artemis I mission, and that prior mission’s Orion vehicle returned from space with a shield “pockmarked by unexpected damage,” said CNN.

NASA hired an independent agency to investigate why the shield was damaged. The report was largely redacted but concluded that it became charred in large pieces — a phenomenon it was “not designed nor was it expected” to protect the spacecraft from. Using this investigation, NASA “identified the technical cause of unexpected char loss across the Artemis I Orion spacecraft,” the agency said in a press release. Despite these findings, NASA plans to forge ahead with Artemis II using the same coating.

What next?
The Artemis II flight will mark a major moment for NASA, as it will be the “first time humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit in more than 50 years,” said ABC News. Ahead of the planned mission, NASA has “full confidence” in Orion’s shield, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said to reporters. 

Not everyone has the same confidence. NASA made a “huge mistake with the approach to manufacturing the heat shield, as I pointed out since the return of the first Artemis I Orion capsule nearly a year and a half ago,” Dr. Ed Pope, an expert on heat shield technology, said on LinkedIn after the investigation.

A rescued green sea turtle named Porkchop, who had her flipper amputated, swims past a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a sea turtle rehabilitation area at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. Porkchop will soon be released back to the wild. 
Mario Tama / Getty Images

The blockbuster series “Fifty Shades of Grey” notoriously started as racy fanfic based on the young adult vampire series “Twilight.” Despite its humble beginnings, this famous example proved that fan fiction websites could be catnip for an already established fan base. And since then, several fanfic authors have crossed over into major mainstream success.

‘After’
Anna Todd’s 2014 novel, “After,” began as fanfic on the social storytelling platform Wattpad, with an edgy love interest modeled after former One Direction member Harry Styles. “After” follows “bright-eyed” Tessa during her freshman year of college, where she meets a “broody, tattooed British deviant” named Hardin Scott, said Business Insider. The romantic series has been adapted into four films. (out now, $22, Simon & Schuster)

‘Alchemised’
Featuring Harry Potter characters Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger as an enemies-to-lovers pair, the Dramione pairing has spurred several fan fictions. SenLinYu’s 2025 debut is a dark romance and a “gargantuan doorstopper clocking in at over a thousand pages” that’s “not for the faint of heart,” said Paste Magazine. (out now, $35, Penguin Random House)

‘Throne of Glass’
Sarah J. Maas’ 2012 debut novel began as a story loosely based on Cinderella that she began writing as a 16-year-old in 2002, called “Queen of Glass.” Since then, the book was turned into a traditional novel and has become part of one of the author's popular fantasy series. (out now, $19, Bloomsbury)