A US Federal Court recently sentenced a hacker to 81 months in prison for hacking government systems in order to fake his death. The reason he did that was a selfish one too: he didn’t want to pay for his child support.
According to the official charge, Jesse Kipf had initially manipulated death records in Hawaii’s death registry system, where he falsely listed himself as dead with a counterfeit digital signature to evade the earlier mentioned child support payments.
“This scheme was a cynical and destructive effort, based in part on the inexcusable goal of avoiding his child support obligations,” Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said. “This case is a stark reminder of how damaging criminals with computers can be, and how critically important computer and online security is to us all. Fortunately, through the excellent work of our law enforcement partners, this case will serve as a warning to other cyber criminals, and he will face the consequences of his disgraceful conduct.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, the hacker also sold access to these networks on the dark web, which the US court said resulted in close to US$200,000 in damages, disruptions in critical operations, and even compromising the personal information that resulted in far-reaching consequences.
“Working in collaboration with our law enforcement partners, this defendant who hacked a variety of computer systems and maliciously stole the identity of others for his own personal gain, will now pay the price,” Michael E. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office, said. “Victims of identity theft face lifelong impact and for that reason, the FBI will pursue anyone foolish enough to engage in this cowardly behavior.”
(Source: Justice.gov, Techspot)
