Hacker gets 9-year term in Lowe's case
Date: December 25, 2004Source: Mlive.com
A Hamburg Township man was sentenced in North Carolina last week to nine years in federal prison for hacking into the Lowe's stores computer system and trying to steal credit card information. Officials said it is the longest prison term ever handed down in a computer crime case.
Brian Salcedo, 21, already on probation for hacking into an Ann Arbor Internet provider's system four years ago, pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy and other hacking charges.
Salcedo's sentence, imposed by U.S. District Judge Lacy Thornburg in Charlotte, N.C., exceeds that given to the hacker Kevin Mitnick, who spent more than 51/2 years behind bars, according to a Justice Department Web site that tracks cyber-crime prosecutions. Mitnick led the FBI on a three-year manhunt that ended in 1995 and is said to have cost companies millions of dollars.
Two other Michigan men await sentencing in the Lowe's case. One of them, Adam Timmins, of Waterford Township, became one of the first people convicted of "wardriving," in which hackers go around with an antenna, searching for wireless Internet connections.
Prosecutors said the three men tapped into the wireless network of a Lowe's store in Southfield used that connection to enter the chain's central computer system in North Wilkesboro, N.C., and installed a program to capture credit card information. Lowe's officials said the men did not obtain any such information.
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