Threat Management

Cybercrime blotter: Revenge hacker who downed Pa. ISP sentenced to 24 months

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.

Bradley Barth

As director of multimedia content strategy at CyberRisk Alliance, Bradley Barth develops content for online conferences, webcasts, podcasts video/multimedia projects — often serving as moderator or host. For nearly six years, he wrote and reported for SC Media as deputy editor and, before that, senior reporter. He was previously a program executive with the tech-focused PR firm Voxus. Past journalistic experience includes stints as business editor at Executive Technology, a staff writer at New York Sportscene and a freelance journalist covering travel and entertainment. In his spare time, Bradley also writes screenplays.

Get daily email updates

SC Media's daily must-read of the most current and pressing daily news

By clicking the Subscribe button below, you agree to SC Media Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.