Hungarian Hacker was arrested for threatening Marriott
A Hungarian Hacker was arrested for hacking into Marriott International Corporation computers and to blackmailing to leak confidential data obtained from the company's computers if Marriott didn't offer him a job.
Attila Nemeth, 26 year old , break into the Marriot company's computers by sending Malware attached email to one of the employee. This malware gave him backdoor into the system. After he get access to the system , he steal the confidential data of the company.
On Nov. 11, 2010, he sent an initial email to Marriott personnel and threatened to leak the confidential data if Marriott did not give him a job .
Attila Nemeth, 26 year old , break into the Marriot company's computers by sending Malware attached email to one of the employee. This malware gave him backdoor into the system. After he get access to the system , he steal the confidential data of the company.
On Nov. 11, 2010, he sent an initial email to Marriott personnel and threatened to leak the confidential data if Marriott did not give him a job .
But Marriott didn't respond for his mail. So he send another email with attachments as proof of the breach on Nov. 13, 2010.
According to the plea agreement, on Nov. 18, 2010, Marriott created the identity of a fictitious Marriott employee for the use by the U.S. Secret Service in an undercover operation to communicate with Nemeth. Nemeth, believing he was communicating with Marriott human resources personnel, continued to call and email the undercover agent, and demanded a job with Marriott in order to prevent the public release of the Marriott documents. Nemeth emailed a copy of his Hungarian passport as identification and offered to travel to the United States.
As a result of the compromise of its computer network, Marriott was compelled to engage more than 100 of its employees in a thorough search of its network to determine the scope of the compromise and to identify the data that may have been compromised.
The loss to Marriott as a result of the intentional damage caused by Nemeth is between $400,000 and $1 million dollars in salaries, consultant expenses and other costs associated with Nemeth’s intrusion.
Nemeth could be sentenced 10 years in prison for the transmission of malware and 5 years in prison for blackmailing. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2012, at 11 a.m. Nemeth remains detained.