Cyber Crime - A Glance at Current Cases Prosecuted in 2008 to Date ï¿½ March 30, 2008

This is a brief summary of cases as reported by the Department of Justice. It will give you an idea of what lurks in cyber space to steal information, invade your computers. These are federal crimes and you should keep in mind that computer intrusion generally refers to invading computers in peoples homes, government computers or publically traded companies computers.

1) Penastar Aviation employee was sentenced for Computer Intrusion and Destroying Payroll and Personnel Records on March 20, 2008.

2) The first conviction in the USA for Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Programs was prosecuted in Seattle and held a 51-month prison sentence for ID Theft on March 17, 2008.

3) A man in Seattle who sold spamming software and spamming services plead guilty to Mail Fraud, Spam and Tax Evasion on March 14, 2008. His scheme affected millions of computers.

4) Two brothers were sentenced on March 7, 2008 for selling over $6 million in stolen software.

5) An alleged distributor of counterfeit pharmaceuticals was extradited back to the US on March 4, 2008.

6) An Indonesian man was sentenced to 10 months in prison on March 3, 2008 for hacking and stealing credit card data from hotel business kiosks.

7) On February 29, 2008 a man plead guilty to stealing government trade secrets involving military technology and selling them to foreign governments.

8) The government seized over $76 million in counterfeit Cisco hardware and labels on February 28, 2008. The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security launched an initiative to find the traffickers of counterfeit network hardware. Since then charges have been filed.

9) On February 26, 2008, David U. Haltinner was sentenced to 50 months for selling over 637,000 stolen credit card numbers.

10) On February 21, 2008 a Chinese chemist was indicted for theft of trade secrets

11) An IRS employee plead guilty to the charge of Unauthorized Access to Government Computers on February 14, 2008.

12) A Bakersfield law student was sentenced for Email Harassment on February 13, 2008.

13) A former Boeing engineer was charged with economic espionage in the theft and further sale to China, of space shuttle secrets on February 11, 2008.

14) On February 11, 2008, a “Bot-herder” (cyber crime name) plead guildty of infecting military computers and fraudulently installing Adware.

15) In Fairfax County a Police Sergeant plead guilty to Unauthorized Computer Access on January 31, 2008.

16) On January 2, 2008 a Florida man was indicted for selling pirated video gaming systems.

17) A woman was sentenced for Criminal Infringement of Copyrighted Materials on January 23, 2008.

18) In the largest Counterfeit Goods Prosecutions case in US history, three people were indicted with counterfeit goods valued over $100M on January 17, 2008.

19) A man and a woman were indicted for Computer Identity Theft on January 16, 2008.

20) A Berlin man plead guilty to Computer Intrusion on January 15, 2008 after being investigated by the Connecticut Computer Crimes Task Force.

21) A man received five years in prison for the illegal takeover of an online bank account on January 14, 2008.

22) The Feds uncover a Conspiracy to Smuggle and Traffic in Counterfeit Goods on January 10, 2008.

23) An Evansville, Indiana man was sentenced to prison for Computer Intrusion on January 10, 2008.

24) On January 10, 2008 a former St. Cloud Hospital employee plead guilty to planting “Logic Bomb” on the hospital computer system.

A logic bomb is a piece of code that is intentionally inserted into a software system to set off a malicious function such as a virus or work that have specified functions or payload at a certain time to cause damage or deleted files such as databases. The bomb detonates when certain conditions are met as programmed by the programmer. Sometimes these viruses are set to detonate on a certain date like April Fools Day or Friday the 13th and they are also referred to as “time bombs.”

25) A man hacked into Cox Communications Cable and Telecommunications computer and shut down services in Texas, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Baton Rouge on January 10, 2008.

26) A foreign national plead guilty on January 9, 2008 in a complex computer fraud scheme victimizing hundreds of people.

27) On January 08, 2008 Edwin Garcia of Vancouver is sentenced to Internet Fraud in an Internet high-yield investment scam and money laundering scheme.

28) A man in Louisville made over &70,000 worth of Copyright violated CD and DVDs and was sentenced to 27 months on January 7, 2008.

29) A former bank branch bank manager plead guilty to fraud with the branch computers by depositing $50,000 into to his account to cover a gambling debt (on January 4, 2008).

30) Alan Ralsky and ten others were indicted on International Illegal Spamming and Stock Fraud on January 3, 2008.