Originally Posted - November 16, 2006

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QUEENS---A Queens man has been accused of hacking into his former employer's computer network.

Stevan Hoffacker, 53, was charged with reading confidential e-mail messages about pending personnel moves and sending e-mail messages to the affected employees, tipping them off that their jobs were in jeopardy.

The employer, Source Media, publishes financial market information and has approximately 1,000 employees. From approximately 1998 until his termination in 2003, Hoofacker worked, at various times, as director of information technology and vice president of technology at Source Media and its predecessor company. In those positions, he had access to the passwords for the e-mail accounts of Source Media employees.

In approximately August and September, a number of years after his termination from the company, two individuals who were then employed by Source Media each received messages from a Yahoo! e-mail account alerting them that they might be losing their jobs. Before these anonymous e-mails were sent, these employees had been the subject of e-mail messages among senior Source Media employees discussing their employment status and possible termination.

Based on technical data logs that contain identification information about computers that access Source Media's computer network over the internet, records from the company that provided cable modem service to Hoffacker, records from Yahoo!, and other information, the FBI identified Hoffacker both as the individual who hacked into Source Media's e-mail network on various occasions prior to the sending of the anonymous Yahoo! e-mails and as the user of the Yahoo! e-mail account from where the e-mails originated.

Hoffacker has been charged with one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer network. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. 11-16-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette