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Press Release

Arizona Systems Administrator Sentenced For Sabotaging Ex-Employer’s Cloud-Computing Server

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Jonathan Hartwell Wolberg, 31, of Tucson, Az., was sentenced today to 33 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for intentionally causing damage to a protected computer.

Dana J. Boente, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Liam O’Grady.

Wolberg pleaded guilty on January 6, 2014. According to court documents, Wolberg formerly worked as a systems administrator for a company identified as “Company A,” a cloud-computing services provider headquartered in the Eastern District of Virginia.  After resigning, Wolberg continued to enter the networks of Company A for the purpose of damaging its servers, its reputation, and its business.  From about March 16, 2012 through about August 1, 2012, Wolberg encouraged Company A’s customers to leave and secretly logged into Company A’s server to issue a shutdown command to a key data server.  As a result, he shut down Company A’s customer networks, making key information – including that of hospitals responsible for surgery and other urgent patient care – unavailable for at least several hours.  Wolberg caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage as a result.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Alexander T.H. Nguyen is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.
Updated March 18, 2015