Hacker Sentenced to Jail Following Attempt to Alter Friend's Prison Record

Hacker Konrads Voits has been sentenced to seven years in prison for attempting to alter prison records so that another inmate could be released early.

Voits, who was described by prosecutors as having “extraordinary talents,” managed to hack the Washtenaw Country, Michigan, computer system in 2017, however he was caught after an employee “checked records by hand.”

“Washtenaw spent more than $230,000 to fix the mess, not including the hours dedicated to the response. County employees were also victims: The government says the 27-year-old Voits got access to the personal information of more than 1,600 people,” reported AP. “Defense attorney Benton Martin says Voits regrets his conduct. He says there’s no evidence that Voits tried to sell or share any personal information.”

Martin alleged that Voits had “severe” mental illness.

According to the International Business Times, “Between approximately 24 January to 10 March this year, Voits used classic phishing and social engineering techniques, using both email and phone calls, to trick Washtenaw County employees into downloading and running malware on their computers.”

“After his email spear-phishing attempts were unsuccessful, Voits began calling county jail employees in February and claimed to be a manager at the County Jail’s IT department. He managed to trick several employees into visiting the phony website riddled with malware and obtained the remote login information of an employee,” they explained. “He then used the stolen information to install malware on the County’s network to gain access to sensitive County records, such as the XJail system – the program used to monitor and track inmates, search warrant affidavits, internal discipline records, and store County employee personal information.”