Rogue Aus sysadmin jailed over hacking spree
Drunken revenge backfires
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A disgruntled contractor who hacked into government systems and deleted thousands of records in Australia's Northern Territories has been jailed for three years and four months.
David Anthony McIntosh, 28, locked users out of IT systems at the Northern Territories' Health Department, Royal Darwin Hospital, Berrimah Prison and Supreme Court last May, a month after resigning his job. The former CSG employee deleted the records of more than 10,000 public servants from government systems, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage in the process.
The computer system disruption cost the NT Government an estimated A$1.25m ($825K) in productivity losses, and tied up 130 experts in resolving the mess.
McIntosh hacked into the database system using the stolen login credentials of a former colleague, who he was living with at time of the attack. The contractor carried out the attack while reportedly drunk and depressed, following the breaking-off of his engagement.
He pleaded guilty to 12 counts of hacking in the NT Supreme Court in January, prior to a sentencing hearing on Wednesday. In sentencing, Justice Stephen Southwood told McIntosh he "didn't cause significant permanent harm (but) nonetheless it was malicious".
The hacker has been on remand since his arrest, and will be eligible for parole in two months. He plans to quit his career in IT following his release and retrain as a chef, The Northern Territories News reports. ®
COMMENTS
"Hacker"
So, the "hacker" basically used a login credential he stole from another employee to gain access to the system.
Errmm... where was the instance of "hacking" there? Doesn't "hacking" involve some more sophistication? Unless ofcourse he used "social enginnering" to trick the person he stole the credentials from.
But really, doesn't seem to take much effort to do what he did, unless it was thrown in just to add weight to his crime/punishment.
Eh?
Eligible for parole in 2 months? What bloody good does that do, then?
Northern Territories?
Its actually the 'Northern Territory', as in one territory, not multiple. Google it.
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