Damaging U.S. Computers Lands Westfield Man in Hot Water
BOSTON – Wei Chen, a 62-year-old Westfield resident, has been sentenced to six months of home confinement and five years of probation for damaging U.S. Army computers and lying on his security clearance form.
According to court documents, Chen, a former Chinese People’s Liberation Army serviceman, was hired as a computer system administrator for a Department of Defense contractor in 2010. To obtain a Secret-level security clearance, Chen completed a questionnaire, in which he falsely stated he had never served in a foreign country’s military.
Chen received the security clearance and was assigned to work at Camp Buehring in Kuwait. In June 2013, he connected his own thumb drives to computers on the Army’s unclassified and classified Secret-level networks, copying a computer file and clearing network logs to hide his security violation.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni handed down the sentence, which also includes a $8,000 fine. Chen pleaded guilty to making a false statement and damaging a U.S. Army computer in December 2015.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam Bookbinder and B. Stephanie Siegmann prosecuted the case, with support from the FBI’s Boston Field Division and the U.S. Army’s Computer Crime Investigative Unit.
Chen’s conviction serves as a reminder of the severe consequences of compromising national security and violating the trust placed in those who work with sensitive information.
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Key Facts
- State: Massachusetts
- Category: Cybercrime|White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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