Brian Salcedo

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Brian Salcedo was convicted in 2004 of computer fraud and conspiracy for accessing a home improvement chain's wireless LAN in an attempt to recover credit card numbers. Adam Botbyl and Paul Timmins initially discovered an open Wi-Fi access point at the Lowe's store in Southfield, Michigan. [1]Months later, Botbyl returned with Salcedo and gained access to the computer system used by the Lowe's[2] chain of home improvement stores. They installed a program to capture credit numbers used for transactions at the Southfield store. Lowe's monitored the intrusions while six numbers were captured before they found the program. [3] Although Salcedo and Botbyl did not view the credit card numbers, the government claims that the crime could have caused more than $2.5 million in damages. Botbyl and Timmins were arrested on November 10, 2003. Under questioning, Botbyl and Timmins pointed the finger at Salcedo. The three men were charged with 16 counts of wire fraud and unauthorized intrusion. All three pleaded guilty to reduced charges as part of a plea bargain. Salcedo was sentenced to 9 years in prison for his involvement in the Lowe’s exploit.[4] The government claims that at the time of its imposition, Salcedo's sentence was the longest federal prison sentence ever given to a hacker for a computer intrusion offense.[5] At the time of his arrest, Salcedo was on a grant of probation following a juvenile conviction for hacking a Michigan ISP, Arbornet.[6] Prior to Salcedo’s sentence, Kevin Mitnick held the record with a 68-month sentence. Salcedo appealed the sentence, arguing that the actual harm done rather than the potential harm done should be used as a factor to determine the length of the sentence. [7] On July 10, 2006 the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the appeal.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ↑  "Second hacker who entered Lowe's computers gets 26 months." December 16, 2004. Detroit Free Press.
  2. ↑  "Wardriving guilty plea in Lowe's wi-fi case", SecurityFocus, August 5, 2004. Article
  3. ↑  "Wardriver pleads guilty in Lowe's WiFi hacks," SecurityFocus, June 6, 2004. Article
  4. ↑  State of Michigan Attorney General (September 14, 2000). "State's first criminal charges filed in computer hacking cases." Press release.
  5. ↑  "Judgement in a Criminal Case, 5:03CR53-01, Western District of North Carolina" December 15, 2004. Judgement in a Criminal Case
  6. ↑  Poulsen, Kevin. "Crazy-Long Hacker Sentence Upheld" July 11, 2006, Wired.Appeal of Sentence Denied

[edit] External link

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