In October 2017, Gavin Paul Prince, 37, chief executive of VeriLet, a tenant eligibility service, was accused of five crimes including the hacking of the computer systems of his former employer Letsxl Ltd, changing system’s password, deleting important documents and emails from three separate accounts. At that time Prince had denied all allegations and any involvement in the crime.
Former employee pleads guilty to hacking charges
However, now, Prince of Llys Ywen, Llandudno Junction UK, has pleaded guilty to the cyber crimes he was accused of under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and claimed that he did it for revenge. It all started last year on April 10th when Prince who worked as an IT expert for Letsxl Ltd was laid off from the company and in return, he hacked their computer server and email accounts out of which one belonged to Nick Lunn, the director of the company.
According to DailyPost, Prince has pleaded guilty to all five charges under the Computer Misuse Act at Caernarfon Crown Court. Prince is currently out on bail while his sentencing will be announced February 28th.
Increase in revenge hacking attacks
While cyber attacks against unsuspecting users and business are increasing there has been a surge in incidents in which people have been using hacking as a weapon of revenge against businesses and educational institutions.
In June 2016, a student claimed he was kicked out from Greenwich University for his “elite skills and e-fame.” In return, the student not only hacked the University’s servers but also stole its database and leaked it on Dark Web.
In November 2016, a female student was charged with carrying out a series of DDoS attacks (distributed denial-of-service) on not one or two but more than 12 local school districts and crippling their online system.
In November 2017, a 46-year-old man from Minneapolis, MN was charged with hiring cyber attackers to target his ex-employer with a year’s worth of DDoS attacks. The man paid attackers a monthly subscription to carry attacks against the company’s system and bring them down. The attacks cost the company a whopping $15,000 in damages.
In December 2017, a 28-year old threatened healthcare software manufacturer firm with cyber attacks for refusing to hire him. The man threatened that if he doesn’t get hired and the current female employee is not fired, he will start cyber attacks against the company. He is now serving 37 months in a federal prison.
