kim woods cyber crime paper
joh.st
vengefulemployee.docxVENGEFUL EMPLOYEE 2
VENGEFUL EMPLOYEE 5
Running head: VENGEFUL EMPLOYEE 1
Michael Menese a 43-year-old computer programmer used to reside in Smithtown, Long Island, who was employed with Spellman high voltage electronic corporation. Spellman founded in 1947 a company who is a provider of direct current and precision high voltage power supplies for the medical, industrial, and scientific communities ("About Us," 2015, p. 1). Menese worked for this company from May 2008 until January 2015. He left the company after being passed over for promotion multiple times and became upset with the company (Secret, 2013, p. 1). His specialty working for the company was in software programming and systems manager specializing in developing and customizing software, which the company used to run its day to day business operations ("Long Island Software Programmer Arrested for Hacking into Network of High-Voltage Power Manufacturer," 2013, p. 1).
He was one of two employees who primarily were responsible for the company’s software running, production planning, purchasing, and inventory control, giving him a high access level to the company’s computer network. After giving his two-week notice Menese, decided to start a vengeance campaign against the company. Before his access was removed he installed a program to capture employee’s user login and passwords. Using this information and the security credential of at least one former co-worker, he would remotely connect into the company’s network by using a virtual private network (VPN) from his home and a hotel near his new employer’s location.
Soon employees at the company noticed things were happening with the computer system, which they felt were out of the ordinary. They were unable to process routine transactions, receiving error messages instead. Menese bent on revenge against his former company, exploited his access and technical knowledge to wage a sabotage campaign against his former company. He altered the business calendar by a month, disrupting production and finance operations. Due to this the company suffered over 90,000 dollars in losses because of Menese’s intrusions into the system. He also accessed the email from his former supervisor and would use a separate email account to send messages to potential candidates for his job not to accept any job offers from the company (Pickard, 2015, p. 1).
Menese was caught 2 May 2013 by investigators who traced the email account to warn off potential candidates for his old job. One place it was traced to was an Internet protocol address, which belonged to Menese new employer. They traced the calendar changes to a hotel in North Carolina, which happened to be a very short distance away from Mr. Menese new job. Checking the hotel records the investigators found Menese to be staying in the hotel at the time of the cyber attacks. At the time he was caught, Menese pleaded not guilty.
On 6 March 2015 in the federal courthouse in New York, Michael Menese pleaded guilty to hacking into his former company’s computer network. The items brought before the court in which Mr. Menese did where: The defendant deleted a line of code in a software program that the victim company used to calculate work order costs, leading the company to incorrectly calculate these costs, The defendant remotely accessed the victim company’s network, read an e-mail sent by his former supervisor to one of his former colleagues about a candidate for the defendant’s former position, created the e-mail address [email protected],” and sent the candidate a message that stated, “Don’t accept any position from [the victim company],” the defendant gained unauthorized access to the victim company’s network and modified a database so it would appear to be March 2012 rather than February 2012. As a result, the company was unable to process routine transactions, and the defendant remotely accessed the victim company’s network and manually purged a purchase order table, which prevented the company from converting purchase requisitions to purchase orders ("FBI," 2015, p. 1)
With the guilty plea Mr. Menese will be charged on 7 July 2015. Mr. Menese will be facing up to 10 years in a federal prison, as well as a restitution and fine of up to 250,000 dollars. This shows the federal government is steadfast to vigorous enforcement of the laws, which govern computer intrusion.
References
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/long-island-software-programmer-arrested-for-hacking-into-network-of-high-voltage-power-manufacturer
Pickard, G. (2015). Hacker Pleads Guilty in Digital Retaliation Campaign. Retrieved from http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2015/03/hacker-pleads-guilty-in-digital-retaliation-campaign/
Secret, M. (2013, May 2). Ex-Worker Created Havoc With Hacking, U.S. Says. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/nyregion/ex-programmer-pleads-not-guilty-in-long-island-computer-hacking-case.html?_r=1
Software Programmer Pleads Guilty to Hacking into Network of Long Island High-Voltage Power Manufacturer. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2015/software-programmer-pleads-guilty-to-hacking-into-network-of-long-island-high-voltage-power-manufacturer
Spellman High Voltage Electronics Corporation. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.spellmanhv.com/en/About.aspx
