Indian pleads guilty to revenge cyberattack

BOSTEN, TX — An Indian origin network engineer has pleaded guilty to a revenge cyberattack on a network security company and its clients after he was fired, according to officials.

Kamlesh Patel admitted in court to hacking the computer of his former employer and three clients by using the network logons of a former colleague and deleting vital information resulting in $137,000 in damages, Massachusetts Federal prosecutor Carmen Oritz announced in Boston last week.

After the 40-year-old Patel was dismissed as a senior network engineer at Baesis Inc., a network security and maintenance company based in Northborough, in October 2010, he went into its network and deleted copies of its clients’ network configurations, prosecutors said.

Three months later, he hacked the computer of Baesis and three of its clients and used a malware to delete data from their networks cutting off access to the internet and email. One company could not use to its internet-based phone system for several weeks.

Ortiz said that Patel has agreed to compensate his victims for the losses of $137,000 they incurred as a result of his crime.

When he is sentenced on September 28 by federal judge Leo Sorokin, he could face a maximum sentences of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine for the crimes of causing damage to internet-connected computers, and five years and $250,000 for using another person’s identity to commit a crime.