FORMER GEXA ENERGY EMPLOYEE CONVICTED OF COMPUTER INTRUSION

(HOUSTON) – A former Database Administrator for GEXA Energy has been convicted following his guilty plea to intruding into his former employer’s computer database system, United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today.

At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore today, Steven Jinwoo Kim, 40, admitted to recklessly causing damage to a GEXA Energy protected computer. GEXA Energy is a retail electric utility provider based in Houston.  

On Feb. 5, 2008, GEXA Energy terminated Kim’s employment as a Database Administrator and permanently revoked his access to all GEXA Energy facilities, computer networks and information technology systems. Approximately three months later, on May 1, 2009, Kim remotely accessed the GEXA Energy computer network and the GEXA Energy Management System (GEMS) database. While connected to the GEXA Energy computer network, Kim recklessly caused damage by, among other things, issuing various Oracle database commands which created a new data table in the GEMS production database which, when copied to the GEMS staging database, caused the automated script to fail thus impairing the availability of data. 
  
As a result of the Kim’s intrusion into their protected computer system, GEXA Energy incurred a loss of at least $100,000, the costs associated with troubleshooting, securing and repairing the GEXA Energy computer network and the GEMS database.       

Judge Gilmore has set Kim’s sentencing for March 1, 2010, at 9:30 a.m. He faces a maximum punishment of five years imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine for his actions. Kim has been permitted to remain on bond pending his sentencing.

The investigation leading to the charges was conducted by the United States Secret Service and jointly prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Bret Davis of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Trial Attorney Thomas Dukes of the Department of Justice, Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section.

 

 

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