BOFH Gets Prison

(Tampa, Florida) A 30-year-old IT worker at the Suncoast Community Health Center (SCHC), Patricia Marie Fowler, was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for computer system hacking.

Fowler is considered to be a textbook bastard operator from hell.

Fowler was convicted of hacking into the network of her former employers, deleting records and locking out legitimate users by deleting passwords.

According to trial testimony, Fowler had been fired by SCHC on March 13, 2009, for insubordination and failing to follow the orders of her supervisors.

On March 17, SCHC employees discovered that a computer intrusion had occurred and that damage had been done to the SCHC computer system.

From March 17, 2009 through April 1, 2009 numerous unauthorized intrusions were made into the SCHC computer system which resulted in the deletion and movement of files from the computers of SCHC executives, changing of administrative account names and passwords, removing access to infrastructure systems, changing pay and accrued leave rates on the employee payroll system, and the compromise and lockout of the firewall used to secure the SCHC network.

On July 15, 2009, Fowler was interviewed by special agents of the FBI and after initially denying any culpability, she admitted to committing the computer intrusion crimes against SCHC and provided the agents with the password to the firewall which she had changed.

Fowler was also ordered to pay $17,243.01 in restitution and to serve three years of supervised release after completing confinement.