A US court has sentenced a Michigan man for hacking into the government computer system of Washtenaw County jail to alter inmates record so as to pave way for early release of his friend serving jail time.
Konrads Voits from Ann Arbor, Michigan, last week pleaded guilty in a federal court for hacking into the Washtenaw County government computer system in an attempt to get his friend early release from jail. Voits admitted to have used malware, phishing and social engineering tricks to gain access to the computers systems.
According to prosecutors, Voits called some prison staffs while claiming to be a manager at the County Jail's IT department, tricked them into downloading and running a malware on their computer by visiting a phishing website.
Voits directed them to visit a phishing website "ewashtenavv.org" which mimics the Washtenaw official URL which is "ewashtenaw.org." The prisons staffs used their login credentials which Voits then used in obtaining the remote login and gained access to County's XJail data.
This hack which occurred in march this year, allowed Voits to steal jail records of several inmates and over 1,600 employees.
Stolen records includes search warrants affidavits, email addresses, user-names, passwords and some other personal details.
Voits eventually altered the records. However, the prison staffs became suspicious when they noticed changes in their records. The FBI were called in.
The Washtenaw County spent over $235,000 to fix the whole mess caused by Voits between January 24, 2017 and march 10, 2017. No prison inmates were however released.
Voits is now facing a maximum of 10 years in imprisonment and a fine up to $250,000. He also has agreed to surrender tools used in the attack, including his laptop, four phones and an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin.
Voits is set to face a akibat hearing on April 5, 2018.
A US court has sentenced a Michigan man for hacking into the government computer system of Washtenaw County jail to alter inmates record so as to pave way for early release of his friend serving jail time.
Konrads Voits from Ann Arbor, Michigan, last week pleaded guilty in a federal court for hacking into the Washtenaw County government computer system in an attempt to get his friend early release from jail. Voits admitted to have used malware, phishing and social engineering tricks to gain access to the computers systems.
According to prosecutors, Voits called some prison staffs while claiming to be a manager at the County Jail's IT department, tricked them into downloading and running a malware on their computer by visiting a phishing website.
Voits directed them to visit a phishing website "ewashtenavv.org" which mimics the Washtenaw official URL which is "ewashtenaw.org." The prisons staffs used their login credentials which Voits then used in obtaining the remote login and gained access to County's XJail data.
This hack which occurred in march this year, allowed Voits to steal jail records of several inmates and over 1,600 employees.
Stolen records includes search warrants affidavits, email addresses, user-names, passwords and some other personal details.
Voits eventually altered the records. However, the prison staffs became suspicious when they noticed changes in their records. The FBI were called in.
The Washtenaw County spent over $235,000 to fix the whole mess caused by Voits between January 24, 2017 and march 10, 2017. No prison inmates were however released.
Voits is now facing a maximum of 10 years in imprisonment and a fine up to $250,000. He also has agreed to surrender tools used in the attack, including his laptop, four phones and an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin.
Voits is set to face a akibat hearing on April 5, 2018.
A Minnesota US District Judge has sentenced a former IT direktur to 366 days in jail for sabotaging his former employer's computer network.
Christopher Victor Grupe, 45, a former employee at the Canadian Pacific Railway was said to have a difficult relationship with his employers. Grupe was suspended for 12 days in December 2015 for insubordination. When he resumed work, he was told that his services were no longer needed and this didn't go down well with him
Also Read: Hacker Jailed For Hacking Prison Network To Release Jailed Friend
Grupe had other motives and so didn't want to leave the company as a sacked worker but as someone who reigned so as in the case of an event happening, he won't be a suspect. Grupe however, managed to convince his employers who then let him to quite instead of the initial sack they had for him.
The ex-IT admin agreed to return all the companies properties that were with him, such as laptop, access badges and remote access authentication token. But then he used his work notebook and credentials to log into CPR's computer network switches and then began to mess things up.
According to the US District court, Grupe changed the passwords for some accounts on the network, removed the administrator-level-accounts and then deleted some key files on the networking hardware.
To cover his tracks, he destroyed all the logs, wiped the laptop he used to commit the offence and then handed it back.
Also Read: Russian faces 3 Years Jail term for playing Pokemon Go in church On January 5, part of the systems went down and the IT staff at CPR tried to login to the switch but found that they had no access to it. The IT staff had to factory reset all the switches to regain access to the equipment.
The incident made the management to call in forensics experts who investigated the cause and found traces of Grupe's meddling in the switches memory storage. Police reviewed the forensic report and evidence from the ex-employees laptop and then proceeded with the charges against Grupe which is one count of intentional damage to a protected computer.
A Minnesota US District Judge has sentenced a former IT direktur to 366 days in jail for sabotaging his former employer's computer network.
Christopher Victor Grupe, 45, a former employee at the Canadian Pacific Railway was said to have a difficult relationship with his employers. Grupe was suspended for 12 days in December 2015 for insubordination. When he resumed work, he was told that his services were no longer needed and this didn't go down well with him
Also Read: Hacker Jailed For Hacking Prison Network To Release Jailed Friend
Grupe had other motives and so didn't want to leave the company as a sacked worker but as someone who reigned so as in the case of an event happening, he won't be a suspect. Grupe however, managed to convince his employers who then let him to quite instead of the initial sack they had for him.
The ex-IT admin agreed to return all the companies properties that were with him, such as laptop, access badges and remote access authentication token. But then he used his work notebook and credentials to log into CPR's computer network switches and then began to mess things up.
According to the US District court, Grupe changed the passwords for some accounts on the network, removed the administrator-level-accounts and then deleted some key files on the networking hardware.
To cover his tracks, he destroyed all the logs, wiped the laptop he used to commit the offence and then handed it back.
Also Read: Russian faces 3 Years Jail term for playing Pokemon Go in church On January 5, part of the systems went down and the IT staff at CPR tried to login to the switch but found that they had no access to it. The IT staff had to factory reset all the switches to regain access to the equipment.
The incident made the management to call in forensics experts who investigated the cause and found traces of Grupe's meddling in the switches memory storage. Police reviewed the forensic report and evidence from the ex-employees laptop and then proceeded with the charges against Grupe which is one count of intentional damage to a protected computer.
A Minnesota US District Judge has sentenced a former IT direktur to 366 days in jail for sabotaging his former employer's computer network.
Christopher Victor Grupe, 45, a former employee at the Canadian Pacific Railway was said to have a difficult relationship with his employers. Grupe was suspended for 12 days in December 2015 for insubordination. When he resumed work, he was told that his services were no longer needed and this didn't go down well with him
Also Read: Hacker Jailed For Hacking Prison Network To Release Jailed Friend
Grupe had other motives and so didn't want to leave the company as a sacked worker but as someone who reigned so as in the case of an event happening, he won't be a suspect. Grupe however, managed to convince his employers who then let him to quite instead of the initial sack they had for him.
The ex-IT admin agreed to return all the companies properties that were with him, such as laptop, access badges and remote access authentication token. But then he used his work notebook and credentials to log into CPR's computer network switches and then began to mess things up.
According to the US District court, Grupe changed the passwords for some accounts on the network, removed the administrator-level-accounts and then deleted some key files on the networking hardware.
To cover his tracks, he destroyed all the logs, wiped the laptop he used to commit the offence and then handed it back.
Also Read: Russian faces 3 Years Jail term for playing Pokemon Go in church On January 5, part of the systems went down and the IT staff at CPR tried to login to the switch but found that they had no access to it. The IT staff had to factory reset all the switches to regain access to the equipment.
The incident made the management to call in forensics experts who investigated the cause and found traces of Grupe's meddling in the switches memory storage. Police reviewed the forensic report and evidence from the ex-employees laptop and then proceeded with the charges against Grupe which is one count of intentional damage to a protected computer.
