New York City Computer Security Expert Convicted by Jury of Computer
Hacking
and Electronic Eavesdropping
MARY JO WHITE, the United States Attorney for the Southern
District of New York, and BARRY W. MAWN, Assistant Director in Charge of
the New York FBI Office, announced that JESUS OQUENDO was convicted in Manhattan
federal court today on charges of computer hacking and electronic eavesdropping
in the first ever federal computer hacking trial in the Southern District
of New York. OQUENDO was convicted following a one-week trial in a case
developed and investigated by the Computer Crime Squad of the New York Office
of the FBI.
According to the evidence at the trial, OQUENDO worked as a computer security
specialist at a company called Collegeboardwalk.com during the first half
of 2000. Collegeboardwalk.com shared office space and computer network with
one of its investors, Five Partners Asset Management LLC ("Five Partners"),
a venture capital company based in Manhattan. As a result of this access,
OQUENDO altered the start-up commands on the Five Partner’s network
to send automatically the password file from the Five Partner’s system
to him at an e-mail account he controlled each time the Five Partner’s
computer system was rebooted.
According to the evidence at trial, after Collegeboardwalk.com failed as
a business, OQUENDO began accessing the Five Partner’s network remotely
over the Internet through a secure shell account he illegally installed
on the victim‘s network. He also began storing hacking programs and
other information in a computer directory that was no longer being used
by Five Partners. Additionally, in August 2000, he secretly installed what
is known as a "sniffer" program that intercepted and recorded
electronic traffic on the Five Partner’s network, including unencrypted
passwords. This sniffer program was then programmed to e-mail these intercepted
communications to OQUENDO each morning at 4 A.M. at a second secret email
account that he had registered under a false name.
By installing this sniffer program, OQUENDO was able to take advantage of
the fact that one of the legitimate users on the Five Partner’s network
also had a computer account on a second victim, RCS Computer Experience
("RCS"), which is also based in Manhattan, and which specializes
in selling computer equipment at retail locations and over the Internet
to individuals located throughout the United States. OQUENDO’s sniffer
program on the Five Partner’s computer intercepted this legitimate
user’s password when the user logged into the RCS network to check
the database file RCS maintained to record and track all of its sales and
inventory (the "RCS Database").
The trial evidence showed that on August 2 and 3, 2000, OQUENDO connected
to the Internet from his home and again remotely entered the Five Partner’s
network. Using the legitimate user’s password, OQUENDO then broke into
the RCS network. While on the RCS network, OQUENDO sent the RCS password
file to his secret e-mail account, sought to install a similar sniffer program
on the RCS system, and issued a series of commands that deleted the entire
RCS database, costing RCS approximately $60,000 to repair. Finally, OQUENDO
left the victim a taunting message on its network: "Hello, I have just
hacked into your system. Have a nice day."
Ms. WHITE stated: "This case demonstrates that defendants cannot maliciously
damage the property of others and eavesdrop on their internal communications
and expect to hide behind the anonymity of the Internet. The privacy of
individuals will be protected and computer hacking will not be tolerated."
United States District Judge LORETTA PRESKA, who presided at the trial,
scheduled June 12, 2001, for the sentencing of OQUENDO. OQUENDO faces a
maximum sentence of five years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, or
twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the crime, on each of the two
charges in the Indictment -- illegal computer intrusion, or hacking, and
electronic eavesdropping.
OQUENDO, 27, lives in Queens, New York.
Assistant United States Attorneys ROBERT R. STRANG and JOSHUA G. BERMAN
are in charge of the prosecution.
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