U.S.
charges four with stealing $100 million in software, data
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[October 01, 2014]
By Aruna Viswanatha
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four members of an
alleged international computer hacking ring were charged with stealing
more than $100 million worth of software and data - some of it used to
train military pilots and some related to Microsoft Corp's Xbox gaming
console - the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.
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Two of the four - a 28-year-old New Jersey man and a 22-year-old
Canadian man - pleaded guilty to charges contained in an indictment
unsealed earlier in the day, the agency said.
Prosecutors said the ring gained unauthorized access to the computer
networks of Microsoft and some of its partners between January 2011
and March 2014 to steal source code, technical specifications and
other information.
Some of the intrusions were directed at the Xbox One gaming console
before its November 2013 release. The hackers tried to build a
counterfeit version of the console, according to the indictment.
The hackers also stole information about pre-release versions of the
“Gears of War 3” and “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” video games,
prosecutors said.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft declined to comment on the case.
The men were also accused of logging into a U.S. Army network to
steal simulator software for the Boeing <BA.N> Apache attack
helicopter, the Justice Department said.
Those attacks occurred after the ring hacked into the network of
Zombie Studios, a Seattle-based video game developer contracted by
the Army to make the training software, according to the indictment.
The men allegedly obtained access to the computer networks partly by
using the stolen user names and passwords of employees at the
partner firms.
Sanadodeh Nesheiwat of Washington, New Jersey and David Pokora of
Mississauga, Ontario pleaded guilty to charges in Delaware federal
court, the Justice Department said.
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Nathan Leroux, 20, of Bowie, Maryland, and Austin Alcala, 18, of
McCordsville, Indiana, were also charged in an 18-count superseding
indictment. A fifth member of the ring who is an Australian citizen
was charged under Australian law for his alleged role in the
conspiracy, the agency said.
Tuesday's charges marked the second big hacking case announced by
the Department of Justice this year.
In May, the agency charged five Chinese military officers and
accused them of hacking into American nuclear, metal and solar
companies to steal trade secrets.
(Reporting by Aruna Viswanatha; Editing by Ros Krasny, Chizu
Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)
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