Tag Archive for: convicted

Ex-CIA Employee Convicted in Theft of Covert Hacking Info

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Joshua Schulte Is Guilty on Nine Counts Ranging From Espionage to Obstruction

Mihir Bagwe (MihirBagwe) •
July 14, 2022    

Ex-CIA Employee Convicted in Theft of Covert Hacking Info

A former CIA programmer charged with spilling the agency’s top-secret hacking toolbox online is guilty after a federal jury returned a verdict on all counts.

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Joshua Schulte, 33, faces a minimum of 80 years in prison after hearing the verdict Wednesday afternoon in a Manhattan federal court room. The government indicted him on nine counts, including espionage, unauthorized access to a computer and obstruction of justice.

Schulte, who developed penetration tools for the espionage service, sent Wikileaks a trove of techniques used for snooping on iPhones, Cisco networking devices, Skype and even smart TVs (see: 7 Facts: ‘Vault 7’ CIA Hacking Tool Dump by WikiLeaks). WikiLeaks posted more than 8,700 documents online in March 2017, calling the leak “Vault 7” and revealing covert programs with names including CrunchyLimeSkies and McNugget.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called the leak “one of the most brazen and damaging acts” of espionage in American history. Schulte harbored resentment toward the CIA and was “aware that the collateral damage of his retribution could pose an extraordinary threat to this nation,” Williams said after the jury verdict.

For all Schulte’s apparent technical sophistication, a recent New Yorker profile of the now-convicted leaker found he was reckless with his personal security. Schulte also faces charges for possession of child pornography.

A first attempt to prosecute Schulte ended in a mistrial, with the jury convicting him on contempt of court charges as well as of lying to the FBI’s investigators, but not on the espionage charges. Schulte opted to represent himself in the second trial.

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Woman convicted in massive Capital One hack – Hartford Courant

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A federal jury on Friday convicted a former Seattle tech worker of several charges related to a massive hack of Capital One bank and other companies in 2019.

Paige Thompson, 36, a former Amazon software engineer who used the online handle “erratic,” obtained the personal information of more than 100 million people — a data breach that prompted Capital One to reach a tentative $190 million settlement with affected customers. The Treasury Department also fined the company $80 million for failing to protect the data.

Following a seven-day trial, the Seattle jury found her guilty of wire fraud, unauthorized access to a protected computer and damaging a protected computer. The jury acquitted her of other charges, including access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Thompson’s attorneys argued that she struggled with mental health issues, never intended to profit from the data she obtained, and said in court papers “there is no credible or direct evidence that a single person’s identity was misused.”

Federal prosecutors said she didn’t just steal the data, but also planted software on servers she unlawfully accessed to steal computing power to mine cryptocurrency.

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“Far from being an ethical hacker trying to help companies with their computer security, she exploited mistakes to steal valuable data and sought to enrich herself,” Seattle U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a news release.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, while the other charges can bring a five-year maximum. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik is scheduled to sentence Thompson in September.

In interviews with The Associated Press following her arrest, friends and associates described Thompson as a skilled programmer and software architect whose career and behavior — oversharing in chat groups, frequent profanity, expressions of gender-identity distress and emotional ups and downs — mirrored her online handle.

At one point, two former roommates obtained a protection order against her, saying she had been stalking and harassing them.

Thompson joined Amazon in 2015 to work at Amazon Web…

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Ex-AWS engineer convicted of hacking data of 100 mn customers, CIO News, ET CIO

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FILE PHOTO: 3D printed clouds and figurines are seen in front of the AWS (Amazon Web Service) cloud service logo in this illustration taken February 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: 3D printed clouds and figurines are seen in front of the AWS (Amazon Web Service) cloud service logo in this illustration taken February 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

A former female engineer of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the Cloud arm of commerce giant Amazon, has been found guilty of hacking into more than 100 million customers’ cloud storage systems and stealing data linked to the 2019 Capital One breach.

Paige Thompson, 36-year-old former tech worker, was convicted in the US District Court in Seattle of seven federal crimes connected to her scheme to hack into cloud computer data storage accounts and steal data and computer power for her own benefit.

She was arrested in July 2019 after Capital One alerted the FBI to Thompson’s hacking activity.

Thompson is scheduled for sentencing by US District Judge Robert S. Lasnik on September 15, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

“Thompson used her hacking skills to steal the personal information of more than 100 million people, and hijacked computer servers to mine cryptocurrency,” said US Attorney Nick Brown.

“Far from being an ethical hacker trying to help companies with their computer security, she exploited mistakes to steal valuable data and sought to enrich herself,” Brown added.

Thompson was found guilty of wire fraud, five counts of unauthorised access to a protected computer and damaging a protected computer. The jury found her not guilty of access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

“She wanted data, she wanted money, and she wanted to brag,” Assistant US Attorney Andrew Friedman said.

The intrusion to Capital One accounts impacted more than 100 million US customers. The company was fined $80 million and settled customer lawsuits for $190 million.

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Woman convicted in massive Capital One hack – Orlando Sentinel

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A federal jury on Friday convicted a former Seattle tech worker of several charges related to a massive hack of Capital One bank and other companies in 2019.

Paige Thompson, 36, a former Amazon software engineer who used the online handle “erratic,” obtained the personal information of more than 100 million people — a data breach that prompted Capital One to reach a tentative $190 million settlement with affected customers. The Treasury Department also fined the company $80 million for failing to protect the data.

Following a seven-day trial, the Seattle jury found her guilty of wire fraud, unauthorized access to a protected computer and damaging a protected computer. The jury acquitted her of other charges, including access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Thompson’s attorneys argued that she struggled with mental health issues, never intended to profit from the data she obtained, and said in court papers “there is no credible or direct evidence that a single person’s identity was misused.”

Federal prosecutors said she didn’t just steal the data, but also planted software on servers she unlawfully accessed to steal computing power to mine cryptocurrency.

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“Far from being an ethical hacker trying to help companies with their computer security, she exploited mistakes to steal valuable data and sought to enrich herself,” Seattle U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a news release.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, while the other charges can bring a five-year maximum. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik is scheduled to sentence Thompson in September.

In interviews with The Associated Press following her arrest, friends and associates described Thompson as a skilled programmer and software architect whose career and behavior — oversharing in chat groups, frequent profanity, expressions of gender-identity distress and emotional ups and downs — mirrored her online handle.

At one point, two former roommates obtained a protection order against her, saying she had been stalking and harassing them.

Thompson joined Amazon…

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