Cyber Crime: DAVID W. KENT, Owner Of Oilpro.com, Guilty In Hacking Into a Competitor’s Network and Stealing Client Data

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<h2 class&equals;"node-title">Oilpro&period;Com Founder Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To Hacking Into Competitor’s Computer System<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"node-subtitle center"><strong>Defendant Stole Information From Over 700&comma;000 Customer Accounts Stored on a Competitor’s Database and Then Sought to Sell Oilpro&period;com to the Company He Had Hacked<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field field--name-field-pr-subtitle field--type-text field--label-hidden"><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field field--name-field-pr-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden">&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field&lowbar;&lowbar;items">&NewLine;<div class&equals;"field&lowbar;&lowbar;item even">&NewLine;<p>Preet Bharara&comma; the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York&comma; and William F&period; Sweeney Jr&period;&comma; Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;FBI”&rpar;&comma; announced today that DAVID W&period; KENT&comma; the founder of professional networking website Oilpro&period;com &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Oilpro”&rpar;&comma; pled guilty this morning before U&period;S&period; District Judge Denise L&period; Cote in Manhattan federal court to a superseding Information&comma; which charged him with one count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization&period;  The charge stemmed from KENT’s role in repeatedly hacking into a competitor’s database to steal customer information and attempting to sell Oilpro to the same company whose database KENT had hacked&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Manhattan U&period;S&period; Attorney Preet Bharara said&colon;  &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;David Kent has admitted to his role in hacking into a competitor’s network and stealing client data in order to boost the value of Oilpro&comma; a company he founded&period;  Kent then attempted to sell Oilpro to the very company he hacked&period;  Using cyber hacking to gain advantage over a competitor is not only an unfair business practice&comma; but is a federal crime for which Kent has now pled guilty&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>FBI Assistant Director William F&period; Sweeney said&colon;  &&num;8220&semi;Today&comma; David Kent pled guilty to intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization&period; This is a stern reminder to others that unauthorized access to a computer is a federal crime with severe penalties&semi; even just a quick look at the data on the computer can lead to a prison sentence and that never leads to a leg up in business&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the superseding Information&comma; the previously filed Complaint&comma; and statements made at public court proceedings&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In or about March 2000&comma; KENT founded a website &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Website-1”&rpar; that provides&comma; among other things&comma; networking services to professionals working in the oil and gas industry&period;  Website-1 allows its members to create profiles&comma; which includes personal and professional information&period;  As part of their profiles&comma; members can also upload their resumes&period;  The profiles are contained in a database maintained by Website-1 &lpar;the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Members Database”&rpar;&period;  Members are assigned login credentials &lpar;<em>i&period;e&period;<&sol;em>&comma; usernames and passwords&rpar; when they create their profiles&period;  Members use these login credentials to access their profiles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In or around August 2010&comma; KENT sold Website-1 for approximately &dollar;51 million to a publicly traded company headquartered in New York&comma; NY &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Company-1”&rpar;&period;  KENT entered into an employment agreement with Company-1 and agreed to continue to serve as the president of Website-1 after the acquisition&period;  However&comma; KENT left Website-1 in September 2011 and launched Oilpro in October 2013&period;  Like Website-1&comma; Oilpro provides networking services to professionals working in the oil and gas industry&period;  Oilpro is headquartered in Houston&comma; Texas&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Between October 2013 and February 2016&comma; KENT conspired to access information belonging to Website-1 without authorization and to defraud Company-1&period;  KENT accessed the Website-1 Members Database without authorization and stole customer information&comma; including information from over 700&comma;000 customer accounts&period;  KENT then exploited this information by inviting Website-1’s members to join Oilpro&period;  Similarly&comma; one of Kent’s employees at Oilpro who previously worked for Website-1 &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;CC-1”&rpar; accessed information in Website-1’s Google Analytics account without authorization and forwarded the information to KENT&period;  In the meantime&comma; KENT attempted to defraud Company-1 by misrepresenting during discussions about a potential acquisition of Oilpro by Company-1 that Oilpro had increased its membership through standard marketing methods&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>KENT&comma; 41&comma; of Spring&comma; Texas&comma; was arrested on March 30&comma; 2016&period;  KENT pled guilty today to one count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization&comma; which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The maximum potential sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only&comma; as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>KENT is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Cote on March 17&comma; 2017&comma; at 2&colon;00 p&period;m&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr&period; Bharara praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation&period;  Mr&period; Bharara also thanked the Office of International Affairs and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Crime Unit &lpar;NCCU&rpar;&comma; and noted that the investigation is continuing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This case is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit&period;  Assistant United States Attorneys Sidhardha Kamaraju and Andrew K&period; Chan are in charge of the prosecution&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;

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