Former Seattle tech worker convicted of wire fraud and computer intrusions | USAO-WDWA

Seattle – A 36-12 months-previous previous Seattle tech employee was convicted currently in U.S. District Courtroom in Seattle of 7 federal crimes linked to her scheme to hack into cloud computer system knowledge storage accounts and steal facts and personal computer electric power for her very own reward, introduced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.  Paige A. Thompson a/k/a ‘erratic,’ was arrested in July 2019, just after Capital One alerted the FBI to Thompson’s hacking activity.  The jury deliberated for ten hrs subsequent the seven-day jury demo.  Thompson is scheduled for sentencing by U.S. District Choose Robert S. Lasnik on September 15, 2022.

“Ms. Thompson applied her hacking capabilities to steal the individual facts of more than 100 million people today, and hijacked pc servers to mine cryptocurrency,” mentioned U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.  “Far from currently being an ethical hacker seeking to aid corporations with their personal computer safety, she exploited issues to steal precious data and sought to enrich herself.”

Thompson was discovered guilty of Wire fraud, five counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer and harming a safeguarded computer.  The jury located her not guilty of accessibility gadget fraud and aggravated id theft.

Employing Thompson’s individual terms in texts and on the net chats, prosecutors showed how Thompson made use of a instrument she built to scan Amazon Website Products and services accounts to look for misconfigured accounts.  She then utilized these misconfigured accounts to hack in and down load the knowledge of extra than 30 entities, such as Funds Just one lender.  With some of her unlawful access, she planted cryptocurrency mining computer software on new servers with the cash flow from the mining going to her on-line wallet.  Thompson put in hundreds of several hours advancing her scheme, and bragged about her illegal carry out to other folks by way of text or on the internet message boards. 

“She wanted information, she wished revenue, and she wished to brag,” Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Friedman reported in closing arguments. 

The intrusion to Money 1 accounts impacted far more than 100 million U.S. Consumers.  The business was fined $80 million and settled consumer lawsuits for $190 million.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 decades in prison.  Illegally accessing a shielded computer system and harming a protected personal computer are punishable by up to 5 many years in jail.  The ultimate sentence is up to Decide Lasnik who will take into account the sentencing guidelines and other statutory aspects.

 The scenario was investigated by the FBI Seattle Cyber Endeavor Drive.  The circumstance is staying prosecuted by Assistant United States Lawyers Andrew Friedman, Jessica Manca, Tania Culbertson, and Steven Masada.