Las Vegas, Nev. - Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada, and Doug Coombs, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Secret Service, Las Vegas Field Office, announce that GREGORY LEE JACKSON, age 31, of Las Vegas, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Philip Pro to five years probation, with a requirement that the first six months be served on home detention with electronic monitoring, for his guilty pleas to three counts of Unauthorized Access to a Protected Computer. The Court also scheduled a hearing for August 29, 2003, to determine the amount of restitution the defendant must pay.

According to the court records, on May 30, 2001, GREGORY LEE JACKSON, was terminated from his employment as an Information Systems Specialist at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Plus Credit Union in Las Vegas. At approximately 4:00 p.m. that day, disgruntled and upset over the loss of his job, JACKSON, using stolen administrative access, entered the computer system of Cox Communications from his home computer and deleted the account of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the IBEW Plus Credit Union, preventing the CEO from accessing the IBEW system remotely. At approximately 5:00 and 7:00 p.m., JACKSON then accessed the IBEW Plus Credit Union system and entered various programming commands which shut down the entire computer system. JACKSON also unlawfully accessed to the IBEW web server and changed the hyperlinks on the website so they were inoperable. The impairment and repairs of the data, programs and systems resulted in losses to IBEW Plus Credit Union. The exact amount of those losses will be determined at the restitution hearing on August 29.

JACKSON was also ordered to comply with special conditions of probation involving the use of computers; is required to provide his probation officer with access to his financial information; and must submit to the search of his person, property or automobile by his probation officer without a search warrant. As part of his plea agreement, JACKSON agreed to surrender to the Government all of computer equipment he used to make the unauthorized accesses into the computers, including six hard drives, three computer towers, a Sony monitor, and JBL speakers. The case was investigated by Special Agents of the United States Secret Service in Las Vegas, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nancy J. Koppe.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada makes prosecution of such offenses a top priority. If you would like additional information on cybercrime or on how to report Internet-related crime, go to www.cybercrime.gov. 

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