Boston...A Maplewood, Minnesota man was charged today in federal court with hacking a protected computer and obtaining personal information of his coworkers.
Trevor R. McDonald, 20, was charged in an Information with violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The Information alleges that, between approximately May 3, 2011 and June 6, 2011, McDonald launched a “brute force attack” against the servers of Workscape, Inc., a Marlborough, Mass. company. Workscape hosted an employee benefits site for employees of FedEx Ground. McDonald, himself a FedEx Ground employee, allegedly created a computer program to hack into the Workscape system and obtain personal information about other FedEx Ground employees, including their names, addresses and social security numbers. Based on information obtained during the investigation, it appears that McDonald did not ever use or release this information. The victim companies have cooperated fully with the investigation.
If convicted, McDonald faces up to one year in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release and a $100,000 fine.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Bruce M. Foucart, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Homeland Security Investigations made the announcement today. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Harman Burkart of Ortiz’s Cybercrimes Unit.
The details contained in the Information are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
