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Man sentenced for breaching former employer's computers

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A Texas man has been ordered to pay restitution of $16,600 and a $5,000 fine after admitting he breached the server of an engineering firm that fired him and deleted sensitive files.

Ismael Alvarez of Andrews, Texas, was also sentenced to five years of probation and one year of home confinement.

In December, federal prosecutors accused Alvarez of accessing a protected computer owned by Gray Wireline Service and deleting about 68 files, many of which contained proprietary reports related to oil and natural gas wells.

During the breach, which happened a few weeks after Alvarez was fired, he created a directory titled “RENEGAGE RULES.” Renegade is the name of a Gray Wireline competitor.

FBI agents tracked down Alvarez through the IP address used to access the Gray Wireline server. It corresponded to the account the rogue employee used with his ISP.

Alvarez, who had worked for the company for more than seven years, joins a long list of disgruntled employees who sought revenge by breaching their employees' computer systems. ®

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