A Michigan man was sentenced to 87 months behind bars for illegally accessing a county government computer in an attempt to spring a county jail inmate early.
Konrads Voits, 27, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan after pleading guilty last year to one count of damaging a protected computer when he used malware to hack into a Washtenaw County computer in order to change the release date on a county jail inmate. Voits was able to gain access to the Washtenaw system through a phishing scam that included calling and emailing county workers and claiming to be from that municipality's IT department and then attempting to convince the person to click on a link leading a website where malware would be downloaded into the county computer, court records state.
Voits successfully conducted this activity between January 24, 2017, and March 10, 2017.
“Through the installation of this malware, Voits was able to gain full access to the county network, including access to sensitive county records such as the XJail system (the computer program used to monitor and track inmates in the county jail), search warrant affidavits, internal discipline records, and county employee information,” the court document said.
The end result of Voits efforts compromised the passwords, usernames, emails and other personal information of 1,600 county workers and he was able to alter the electronic record of at least one county inmate changing that individual's release date so that person could be released early.
Voits activity cost the county $235,488, which Voits must repay.
