guilty

Software pirate pleads guilty to theft of $100 million in goods

After being lured to U.S. territory and arrested in an undercover sting, Chinese national Xiang Li pled guilty in U.S. federal court to pirating, cracking, and selling software worth more than $100 million today, according to Reuters.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security took down Li in June 2011 after agents discovered that he was heading a pirating ring that sold stolen software on the Web. The software was mostly used by defense, space, and engineering companies and was made by Microsoft, Oracle, Rockwell Automation, Agilent Technologies, Siemens, and others.

"Li thought he was safe from … Read more

Two men plead guilty to hacking Subway stores

Two Romanian men pled guilty to working with others to hack into point-of-sale terminals at hundreds of Subway stores in the U.S. to steal credit card data from more than 146,000 accounts between 2009 and 2011, federal prosecutors said.

Iulian Dolan, 28, and Cezar Iulian Butu, 27, entered guilty pleas Monday in federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Dolan also pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit credit card fraud and has agreed to spend seven years in prison. He admitted helping the … Read more

Before move to AMD, Intel engineer stole documents

A former Intel engineer has pleaded guilty to stealing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of data from the chip giant before leaving the company, according to a Bloomberg report.

The worker, Biswamohan Pani, 36, of Chelmsford, Mass., stole the sensitive chip-related information "to advance his career with a competitor," according to Bloomberg. He worked at an Intel chip-manufacturing plant in Hudson, Mass.

Pani gave notice to Intel on May 29, 2008, with his last day set for June 11 and began work at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on June 2, "while retaining access to Intel's … Read more

Celebrity hacker pleads guilty to Scarlett Johansson e-mail hack

Christopher Chaney entered guilty pleas to nine felony counts in federal court today, admitting that he hacked into dozens of celebrities' e-mail accounts, including those of Mila Kunis and Scarlett Johansson, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"Today's guilty pleas shine a bright light on the dark underworld of computer hacking," said U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr., whose office prosecuted the case, according to the Los Angeles Times. "This case demonstrates that everyone, even public figures, should take precautions to shield their personal information from the hackers that inhabit that dark underworld."

Chaney, 35 … Read more

Execs convicted in Google Video case in Italy

In the second hit of a one-two punch in Europe, an Italian court handed out guilty verdicts on Wednesday for three of four Google employees charged in a case concerning a 2006 Google Video clip posted of a teenager with autism.

The judge in the case, Oscar Magi, gave suspended six-month jail sentences for privacy invasion to David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer; Peter Fleischer, Google's chief privacy counsel; and George Reyes, Google's former chief financial officer. They weren't convicted on defamation charges, though, and a fourth Google employee, Arvind Desikan, was cleared of all charges, … Read more