Hacker Gets 16 Months for Crashing Firm’s Computers
A disgruntled former employee was sentenced Tuesday to 16 months in state prison and ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution for hacking into a defense contractor’s computer and crashing the system.
Armen Oganesyan, 26, of Lancaster pleaded no contest to illegally accessing H.R. Textron’s computer system from a remote location and causing more than $200,000 in damage.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Schuit recommended that Oganesyan, who has no prior convictions, be placed in a local restitution center, where he may work while incarcerated to repay his victim.
“The community gets its punishment and the victim gets restitution,” the judge said.
If accepted at the center, Oganesyan, a former systems administrator, will work during the day and return to the center at night.
A third of his salary will go toward restitution, with the remainder split between incarceration costs and the inmate.
In February 2000, a month after being fired, Oganesyan tapped into H.R. Textron’s computer and caused the system to crash for a day, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Fairtlough.
Seven hundred employees at company offices in Valencia, Pacoima and Ohio were unable to use their computers, causing $211,000 in lost labor costs, Fairtlough said.
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