A Texas man has been charged with 18 counts of cyberstalking and 44 charges related to hacking into local government websites and a newspaper, according to a federal indictment.
Fidel Salinas, 27, of Donna, Texas, is accused of cyberstalking a female victim at least 18 times in the days surrounding Christmas 2011, sending her repeated emails, attempting to gain unauthorized access to her website, and making submissions through a contact form on that site, according to the indictment.
The indictment also alleges that Salinas attempted to hack into and damage computer servers belonging to Hidalgo County, the La Joya Independent School District, and The McAllen Monitor newspaper over the course of five days in 2011-2012, causing thousands of dollars in loss as a result.
According to the charges, between the late night and early morning of January 4-5, 2012, Salinas made more than 14,000 hacking attempts to the administration management page of the Hidalgo County website server, resulting in true administrators temporarily not being able to access it. The county allegedly incurred a loss of more than $10,000 in responding to the attack.
The superseding indictment charges Salinas with conspiring with others to attempt to hack into and damage these sites and links him to the computer-hacking group Anonymous.
Salinas allegedly participated in an online chat room for the Operation Anti-Security faction of Anonymous and attempted to enter the IRC Operations server for Anonymous, according to the charges. After his alleged attempt to hack his way into the Hidalgo County web server, he posted a profanity-laced rant on his Facebook page that ended with a quote used by Anonymous members: “We do not forgive, we do not forget, divide by zero we fall, EXPECT US!”
Salinas faces up to 10 years in federal prison on each of the charges, upon conviction. The FBI is investigating with the assistance of the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Sully is prosecuting the case.
A complaint or indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.
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