Joe Vito Venzor, a 42-year-old El Paso resident, has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for his role in a computer intrusion at his former employer’s production company. The sentence was handed down by Senior United States District Judge David Briones on March 30, 2017, and also included a requirement that Venzor pay $57,397.76 in restitution to the company.
According to court documents, Venzor was a help desk employee at the production company when he was terminated on September 1, 2016. In a fit of anger and retaliation, he accessed the company’s computer system using an administrator account and shut down the email server and application server, deleting critical systems files in the process.
The company, which employed 300 people, was severely impacted by the intrusion, with employees unable to work for nearly three hours and the distribution center unable to ship products or receive online orders. The IT Managing Director was forced to hire a third-party IT staff to assist with setting up a new application server, and the company continued to suffer losses in the days and weeks that followed as they worked to reconstruct files and fulfill customer services.
Venzor pleaded guilty to one count of transmission of a program to cause damage to a computer on March 30, 2017. He was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release, during which time he will be required to pay $57,397.76 in restitution to his former employer.
U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr., and FBI Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie, Jr., praised the work of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in bringing the case to a successful conclusion.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Greg McDonald and Rifian Newaz.
Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Cybercrime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
ðŸâ€Â’ Get the grimiest stories delivered weekly. Subscribe free →
