Man Convicted of Orchestrating Phishing Attack on Los Angeles Superior Court
A Texas man was found guilty in federal court for hacking into the Los Angeles Superior Court computer database and then using it to send 2 million malicious phishing emails. Oriyomi Aloba, 33, was found guilty on Thursday after a 3-day trial for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud, and 5 counts of unauthorized access to protected computer information.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Aloba and his co-conspirators targeted the Los Angeles Superior Court for a phishing attacked. During the attack, one court employees email account was compromised and send an email – without her authorization – to co-workers purporting to be from the file hosting service Dropbox. In fact, the link took the person to a phishing website that asked for the users email address and password. Thousands of employees received the Dropbox email and hundreds disclosed their email credentials to the attacker. Thereafter, millions of phishing emails were sent.
After obtaining a search warrant for Aloba’s Texas residence, agents discovered a thumb drive in a toilet, a damaged iPhone in the bathroom sink, a smashed laptop with blood smeared on the screen. Agents also recovered a “phishing kit” which was software designed to facilitate a phishing attacking.
Aloba is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner on October 21 where is faces up to 350 years in federal prison.
The charges were initially brought by the Los Angeles County District Attorney, but the case was later referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for federal prosecution.
If you have been charged or arrested for a federal crime, then contact the Law Offices of John D. Rogers to schedule a consultation with an experienced Newport Beach federal crimes lawyer.
