Casey K. Umetsu, Sabotaging Computer Network, Hawaii 2023

A Honolulu man has been caught sabotaging his former employer’s computer network, causing a prolonged outage and disrupting the company’s web presence and email. Casey K. Umetsu, age 40, pleaded guilty to the crime on an unspecified date before United States District Judge Jill A. Otake.

According to court documents, Umetsu worked as an information technology professional for a prominent Hawaii-based financial company between 2017 and 2019. In that role, he was responsible for administering the company’s computer network and assisting other employees with computer and technology problems.

As part of his guilty plea, Umetsu admitted that, shortly after severing all ties with the company, he accessed a website the company used to manage its internet domain. He used his former employer’s credentials to access the company’s configuration settings on the website and made numerous changes, including purposefully misdirecting web and email traffic to computers unaffiliated with the company.

This caused the company’s web presence and email to be incapacitated for several days. Umetsu then prolonged the outage by taking a variety of steps to keep the company locked out of the website. Umetsu admitted that he caused the damage as part of a scheme to convince the company it should hire him back at a higher salary.

Umetsu faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years. Sentencing is set for January 19, 2023.

U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors stated that Umetsu criminally abused his special access privileges to disrupt the company’s network operations for personal gain. The FBI is encouraging companies to include them as part of their cybersecurity incident plan so they can assist in the event of a cyber incident.

This conviction is the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rebecca A. Perlmutter and Wayne A. Myers are handling the prosecution.