What happened? Syracuse, N.Y., resident Dariusz Prugar, 32, was sentenced to federal prison in a Pennsylvanian court on Tuesday after being convicted on computer hacking and wire fraud charges for sabotaging his former employer's computer network.
Sentence: Prugar was sentenced to 24 months of incarceration and must pay $26,000 in restitution. He will begin serving his time on Dec. 27.
Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo in Harrisburg, Pa., handed down the sentence, which was announced in a press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Background? Per the release: Prugar was the network administrator for Pennsylvanian Internet service provider Pa Online, until he was fired in June 2010. In an act of revenge, he secretly hacked into his former employer's systems, implementing various backdoors and installing computer programs that erased files and directories and caused the network to crash. More than 5,000 residential customers and over 500 business customers experienced service disruptions, causing some to close out their accounts. The company also incurred the expenses of rebuilding its entire network.
Prugar was convicted in March 2016 following a one-week jury trial.