A man from Blaine, Minnesota was sentenced 18 years for counts of identity theft, sex crime and threats against the Vice President. The criminal convictions were related to a hacking campaign the man conducted against his neighbor beginning in 2008. The 46-year-old man admitted in a plea agreement that he hacked his neighbor’s wireless network to send sexually explicit emails in order to harass his neighbor. The man also sent death threats to Vice President Biden and signed the emails with his neighbor’s name. The purpose of the man’s hacking campaign was to destroy his neighbor’s reputation.
The man’s campaign against his neighbor began when the neighbor first moved into the neighborhood. The neighbor’s 4-year-old son wandered over to the man’s property and the man, a 46-year-old father of two, allegedly returned the boy to his parents and kissed him on the lips. Police were called and the 46-year-old was offended.
To exact revenge, the man downloaded a wireless network hacking program to access his neighbor’s wireless network. The man created multiple fake email addresses and a fake Myspace account in his neighbor’s name. The man then emailed child pornography from the fake email addresses to his neighbor’s co-workers at a law office and posted child pornography on the fake Myspace page. The 46-year-old also sent death threats to Vice President Joseph Biden in the neighbor’s name and the secret service traced the emails back to the neighbor’s internet protocol or IP address.
The neighbor’s law firm hired a firm to investigate the neighbor’s wireless network and did so by using a packet sniffer. Eventually, the 46-year-old man’s information was discovered on the network which led to a search warrant.
Source: digitaltrends.com, “Minnesota Wi-Fi hacker gets 18 years in prison for terrorizing neighbors,” Jeff Hughes, 7/12/11
