Hacker Puts Hospital Records and Patients at Risk.
Jesse William McGraw worked as a night security
guard at Northern Central Medical Plaza in Dallas where he essentially had free run of the building.
While working, McGraw gained physical access to more than 10 of the hospital's computers,
including those located in a nurses' station and controlling the heating, ventilation and air
conditioning (HVAC) systems. He enabled the computers to be accessed remotely and removed
certain security features (for example, by uninstalling anti-virus programs), which made the entire
network more vulnerable to attack. McGraw also installed malicious codes, or "bots," on several
computers.
But McGraw wasn't merely content to perform these criminal activities. Using the online nickname
"GhostExodus," he posted pictures on the Internet of the compromised HVAC system and videos on
YouTube. With the theme song from "Mission Impossible" playing in the background, McGraw
described his hacking efforts step-by-step and showed how he inserted the CD that enabled him to
bypass security protection. Subsequently, the FBI found the CD in McGraw's home and located the
source code for the bot on his laptop.
The objective: At trial, McGraw admitted that he intended to use the bots and the compromised
computer system to launch attacks on Web sites of rival hacker groups.
By hacking into the HVAC computer, McGraw knew that the building's temperature could be
moderated, which might have an adverse effect on the medical conditions of some patients as well
as temperature-sensitive drugs and supplies. Furthermore, opening up the nurses' station computer
to remote access could expose patient records. Although McGraw claims that he did not touch
patient records -- and the government has no proof to the contrary -- gaining administrator access to
the computers could have enabled him to review or modify records.
In March 2011, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for installing malware on the facilities'
computers. He was also ordered to pay over $31,000 in restitution and will have to serve three years
of supervised release following his prison term. (U.S. v. McGraw, U.S. District Court
Northern District of Texas)
Computer Programmer Steals Valuable, Proprietary Code. A former computer programmer at
Goldman Sachs & Co. was sentenced in March 2011 to 97 months in prison for theft of trade secrets
and interstate transportation of stolen property.
For just over two years, Sergey Aleynikov was employed at Goldman Sachs as a computer
programmer responsible for developing computer programs supporting the firm's high-frequency
trading on various commodities and equities markets. Since acquiring the system in 1999 for
approximately $500 million, Goldman Sachs modified and maintained it and took significant
measures to protect the confidentiality of its computer programs. The company's trading system
generated millions of dollars per year in profits and the firm took several measures to protect the
system's source code, including requiring all Goldman employees to agree to a confidentiality
agreement.
Aleynikov resigned from Goldman Sachs and accepted a job at Teza Technologies, a newly-formed
company in Chicago, Ill. He was hired to develop Teza's version of a computer platform that would
allow the company to engage in high-frequency trading.
Shortly after 5 p.m. on his last day of employment, Aleynikov transferred substantial portions of the
Goldman Sachs' proprietary computer code for its trading platform to an outside computer server in
Germany. He encrypted the files and transferred them over the Internet without informing Goldman
Sachs. After transferring the files, he deleted the program he used to encrypt them and deleted his
computer's "bash history," which records the most recent commands executed on his computer.
In addition, throughout his employment at Goldman Sachs, Aleynikov transferred thousands of
computer code files related to the firm's proprietary trading program from the firm's computers to
his home computers, without the knowledge or authorization of his employer.
On July 2, 2009, Aleynikov flew to Chicago to attend meetings at Teza's offices, bringing with him his
laptop computer and another storage device, each of which contained Goldman Sachs' proprietary
source code. He was arrested the next day.
During the sentencing proceeding, U.S. District Court Judge Denise L. Cote said Aleynikov's conduct
deserved "a significant sentence because the scope of his theft was audacious -- motivated solely by
greed, and it was characterized by supreme disloyalty to his employer." (U.S. v. Aleynikov, U.S.
District Court, Southern District of New York)
Research Scientist Sells Trade Secrets to Chinese Companies. A federal jury convicted a former Dow
Chemical Company employee of stealing trade secrets and selling them to companies in China, as
well as committing perjury.
According to the evidence presented in court in early 2011, Wen Chyu Liu (also known as David Liou)
came to the United States from China for graduate work. He began working for Dow in 1965 and
retired in 1992. Dow is a leading producer of the elastomeric polymer, chlorinated polyethylene
(CPE). Dow's Tyrin CPE is used in a number of applications worldwide, such as automotive and
industrial hoses, electrical cable jackets and vinyl siding.
While employed at Dow, Liu worked on various aspects of the development and manufacture of
Dow elastomers. He had access to trade secrets and confidential and proprietary information
pertaining to Dow's Tyrin CPE process and product technology. The evidence at trial established that
Liu conspired with at least four current and former employees at Dow's facilities to misappropriate
trade secrets in an effort to develop and market CPE process design packages to various Chinese
companies.
Liu traveled throughout China to market the stolen information, and court evidence showed that he
paid current and former Dow employees for material and information. In one instance, Liu bribed a
then-employee with $50,000 in cash to provide Dow's process manual and other CPE-related
information.
"American industries thrive on innovation and they invest substantial resources in developing new
products and technology," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer. "We will not allow
individuals to steal the technology and products that U.S. companies have invested years of time and
considerable money to create." (U.S. v. Liu, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Louisiana)
