IT Manager Sentenced to Jail for Computer Intrusion

TAMPA, FL—U.S. Attorney Robert E. O'Neill announces that U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday today sentenced Edwin Vega, Jr., (age 42, of Valrico) the former Information Technology (IT) Manager for the Consuegra Law Firm (CLF) located in Tampa, Florida, to 18 months in federal prison for committing computer intrusions causing damage of at least $120,000. The court also ordered Vega to pay restitution of $120,000 and to be placed on supervised release for three years after serving his sentence of confinement.

Edwin Vega, Jr. entered a plea of guilty to the charge on August 19, 2010.

According to court documents, Vega had been fired by CLF on August 13, 2009, for deleting files off of a computer which belonged to the human resources (HR) manager. The deletions occurred in the evening of August 12, 2009 after Vega was counseled by CLF managers for unacceptable behavior.

From August 20 through August 30, 2009, on at least four different occasions, Vega accessed CFL's computers by unauthorized means and destroyed/deleted data on the company servers. He also disabled operating systems and deleted CFL's e-mail accounts and other records.

On November 24, 2009, Vega was interviewed by special agents of the FBI and after initially denying any culpability, he admitted to accessing an open wireless network from his home using his desktop computer in order to access the CLF computer servers and commit the deletions and damage.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Donald L. Hansen, the Computer Technology Crimes Coordinator for the Tampa Division.