On October 5, 2016, the El Paso Division of the FBI arrested 40 year old Joe Venzor in his residence without incident following an investigation into allegations of unauthorized intrusion upon protected computers. He is charged by a criminal complaint with knowingly causing the transmission of a program, information code, or command, and as a result of such conduct intentionally caused damage without authorization to a protected computer. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a maximum $250,000 fine upon conviction. Regarding the arrest, Special Agent in Charge Douglas E. Lindquist stated, “FBI El Paso takes every cyber investigation seriously, because of the negative impact one person with cyber skills can have on El Paso businesses and their employees who work hard here every day.”

The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating cyber attacks by criminals, overseas adversaries, and terrorists. The threat is incredibly serious—and growing. Cyber intrusions are becoming more commonplace, more dangerous, and more sophisticated. The FBI encourages members of the public to report violations of U.S. federal law or suspected criminal cyber activity as follows:

• Use our Online Tips and Public Leads form to report information on criminal activity and suspected terrorist threats.
• Report cyber crimes by filing a complaint with our Internet Crime Complaint Center.
• Contact the El Paso FBI Office at 915-832-5000

A criminal complaint is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.