Posted on 11/14/2008 6:59:41 PM PST by SeafoodGumbo
A former prison inmate has been arrested and charged with hacking the facility's computer network, stealing personal details of more than 1,100 prison employees and making them available to fellow inmates.
Francis G. Janosko, 42, gained access to the names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers and telephone numbers of employees working for the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in US District Court in Boston. Using a thin client that was connected to a prison server, the prisoner was able to access an employee database by exploiting a bug in legal research software made available to inmates.
Once he obtained the personal information of the employees, he made it accessible to other inmates. Janosko also managed to obtain the username and password to a prison management program, and to access the internet to download videos and digital photographs of prison employees, inmates and aerial shots of the prison. The accused hacking took place between October 2006 and February 2007.
"Although the legal research computer server was connected through the prison's network to the internet solely so that it could obtain updates to its Windows operating system, the legal research server was configured to disallow access to the worldwide web," the indictment stated. Computer use was limited to legal research only; use of the internet was forbidden.
Janosko is charged with one count each of aggravated identity theft and intentional damage to a protected computer. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He could also be forced to pay unspecified restitution.
According to The Boston Globe, Janosko was arrested in 2005 on child pornography charges after investigators discovered nude photos of children on his cellphone. It was the third time he faced such charges, The Globe reported. He was listed as a Level 3, or high-risk, sex offender in Massachusetts in 2005.
The libs in MA deserve this.
Well, there’s a great hire for the False Messiah right there.
there is no valid justification for an inmate to have a computer. They can network with other criminals inside and out. The computers open the doors of all kinds of nefarious activities. Who pays the bills? Who monitors the porn and other filth? Why? Why?
Let them riot, but get the computers out of prisons!
Oh Oh...
I don’t think it’s what you think, elpadre. I work for a computer networking company that also runs data lines. We were contracted to run lines in prisons for the exact kind of library that is described here - a legal research library.
It takes the place of books, and is NOT connected to the internet. In other words, all they have access to is legal docs and books. Apparently, it is cheaper than buying paper books.
I don’t think it’s what you think, elpadre. I work for a computer networking company that also runs data lines. We were contracted to run lines in prisons for the exact kind of library that is described here - a legal research library.
It takes the place of books, and is NOT connected to the internet. In other words, all they have access to is legal docs and books. Apparently, it is cheaper than buying paper books.
I have seen pictures of cells with TVs in years gone by and the story led me to think they had laptops in there as well. Thanks for the info.
OK.
You provided a data link to the World.
I’ll have to keep it in mind when it’s my time in our new world.
When this guy is convicted the first thing he’s going to do is demand access to the computers to check on his legal case. I wonder if he has taken any recent courses on computer programming? He could get a lot of people upset by sending out birthday cards to the guards kids.
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