DOJ logo Email this Document!
*Press Release
For Immediate Release
**September 6, 2000*
*U.S. Department of Justice*
/United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas
/
/1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl/
/Telephone (214)659-8600/
/Dallas, Texas 75242-1699/
/Fax (214)767-2898
/
/CONTACT: 214/659-870 /
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Computer Hacker Sentenced*
United States Attorney Paul E. Coggins announced today that
Patrick W. Gregory, also known as "MostHateD," was sentenced today
in federal court by the Honorable United States District Judge
Jorge A. Solis to 26 months imprisonment, three years supervised
release, and was ordered to pay $154,529.86 in restitution.
Gregory, age 20, of Houston, Texas, had pled guilty in April to
conspiracy to commit telecommunications fraud and computer
hacking, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections
371, 1029 (a)(2) and 1030 (a)(5). Gregory was immediately taken
into custody.
From1997 though May 1999, Patrick W. Gregory was a member of an
on-line computer hacker organization known as "total-kaOs," and
later was a member of another on-line computer hacker organization
called "globalHell." In fact, Gregory and Chad Davis, also known
as "Mindphasr," co-founded "globalHell" in February 1998. By
using stolen unauthorized access devices, such as telephone
numbers, Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) combinations and
credit card numbers, Patrick W. Gregory illegally accessed
numerous teleconferences provided by victims AT&T, MCI, Sprint,
Latitude Communications and various other telecommunications
providers.
United States Attorney Coggins said, "Hackers who steal consumers'
personal information for harassment or profit, or maliciously
disrupt businesses' computer services, will be vigorously
prosecuted. We will continue to use all our present resources to
ensure that cybercrooks are punished, in federal courts, to the
fullest extent of the law." United States Attorney Coggins
further stated, "I'm proud of the sophisticated investigative work
done by the newly established North Texas Regional Computer
Forensic Lab and the collaborative efforts of local, state and
federal agencies working together to aggressively crack down on
the explosion of cybercrimes and cybercrooks."
During the conspiracy, Gregory and other co-conspirators used the
unauthorized access devices they stole to set up teleconferences
for various members of "total-kaOs" and "globalHell" so that they
could communicate with each other and discuss matters relating to
telecommunications theft and computer hacking. Gregory trafficked
in unauthorized access devices by accessing illegal
teleconferences by using unauthorized PIN numbers he received from
friends who belonged to other online hacking organizations. He
also provided unauthorized access devices to other members of
"globalHell" and "total-kaOs" so that these members could also
steal teleconference services from the victim companies. Gregory
admitted he knew that almost on a daily basis, "total-kaOs" and
"globalHell" routinely accessed teleconference services with
unauthorized access devices to steal free telephone service in
order to share and coordinate their attacks upon protected
computers throughout the world. Each of these teleconferences
routinely lasted more than six hours.
Patrick W. Gregory also used these unauthorized access devices to
listen in and/or disrupt teleconferences of legitimate third
parties using the telecommunications services of these victim
companies. Specifically, in June 1998, Gregory participated in an
AT&T teleconference for which he and others caused billing in
excess of $4,200.00 to an innocent third party for using these
conference services. In October 1998, Gregory, using stolen
teleconference access information from Latitude Communications,
gained access to Dallas Community College District's
teleconference system and caused teleconference classes at the
College to be disrupted and caused a telephone charge in excess
of $18,500.00 to be made to the College.
Patrick W. Gregory also admitted to trafficking in credit card
information and computer login password combinations with members
of "total-kaOs" and "globalHell." Acting with other "globalHell"
members, Gregory attacked and gained unauthorized access to
multiple protected computer systems throughout the United States
and around the world. After Gregory and others gained access to
these computers, they placed various codes, programs and files on
these computers. Typically, Gregory and his co-conspirators would
replace the legitimate web pages of victims' sites with text and
graphics relating to their organization "globalHell." In some
instances other co-conspirator members of "total-kaOs" and
"globalHell" would obtain complete and unauthorized control over a
victim's system, known as "root level access." Thereafter,
"total-kaOs" and "globalHell" members would intentionally crash
and delete data on protected computer systems causing damage to
victims' networks. These damages were sometimes financial and
sometimes intangible, including the loss of faith in the victim
organizations and "brand name" due to the public defacements of
their web sites.
In April 1999, Patrick W. Gregory caused the transmission of a
computer program that allowed him to gain unauthorized access to a
protected computer owned by "1688.com". Gregory stole banking
information and posted it on the Internet, compromised the sites'
users personal E-mail accounts, and stole passwords and posted
them on the Internet. Various members of "globalHell," the
organization that he co-founded, gained access into and damaged
various protected computers including those belonging to the
United States Army, the United States White House, United States
Cellular, Ameritech, and many others. Gregory admits that he
caused loss amounts for the illegal teleconferencing and the
intrusions into protected computers somewhere between $1.5 and
$2.5 million.
United States Attorney Coggins praised the hard work and
exceptional investigative skills of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and added that the recent launching of the
Department of Justice's web site "www.cybercrime.gov" provides
information on the growing area of crimes related to the Internet,
focusing on hackers and intellectual property crime.
Assistant United States Attorney Reid Wittliff prosecuted the case.
# # # #
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* *More information on: Gregory's Conviction *
* *More information on: Computer Crime Cases *
Go to . . . CCIPS Home Page || Justice Department Home
Page
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last updated September 25 , 2000
usdoj-crm/mis/km
------------------------------------------------------------------------