Press Release
Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty To Hacking Into Multiple Computer Networks
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts
BOSTON – A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty today to charges stemming from his participation in a scheme to hack into computer networks and sell access to those networks.
Andrew James Miller, 23, of Devon, Penn., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf to one count of conspiracy and two counts of computer intrusion.
From 2008 to 2011, Miller remotely hacked into a variety of computers located in Massachusetts and elsewhere, and, in some instances, surreptitiously installed “backdoors” into those computers. These “backdoors” were designed to provide future administrator-level, or “root,” access to the compromised computers. Miller obtained log-in credentials to the compromised computers. He and his co-conspirators then sold access to these backdoors, as well as other log-in credentials. The access sold by Miller and his co-conspirators allowed unauthorized people to access various commercial, education and government computer networks.
Sentencing is scheduled for November 19 at 3 p.m. The maximum penalty for conspiracy is five years in prison. One of the computer intrusion counts carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and the other, involving intentional damage to a private computer, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston Field Division, made the announcement today.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Bookbinder of Ortiz’s Cybercrimes Unit and Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.
Updated December 15, 2014
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