Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 4, 1994 TAG: 9405040134
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Kevin Pacheco, 22, is charged with using his computer skills to alter and destroy information in a Colorado-based computer network that provides about 2,200 computer users access to databases such as Internet.
A two-count indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke this week also charges the former Virginia Tech computer science major with using stolen credit card numbers to buy his $4,100 IBM Notebook Computer and to charge roughly $1,800 to CompuServe, an on-line computer service.
Pacheco was arrested April 12 at his mother's home in New York, ending an 11-month FBI investigation. He could face up to 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ruth Plagenhoef described Pacheco as "a mid-level hacker" who could have caused more damage.
That's little comfort to Klaus Dimmler, president of Community Services Inc., the Colorado Springs company whose computer network was illegally accessed by a hacker for two months.
"He did some substantial damage to our system and actually brought our business to a standing halt." Dimmler said Tuesday. "I'm glad to hear [Pacheco] was indicted; it's good to catch hackers ... because it teaches all of them a lesson."
Dimmler said someone broke into the company's mainframe computer last summer, where he stole credit card accounts and passwords.
Plagenhoef said the two-count indictment is just a sample of the illegal computer hacking federal authorities believe Pacheco committed.
According to an FBI agent's federal affidavit, the investigation of Pacheco began last May after ADT Security Systems in California reported that someone had illegally entered its computer system.
The hacker was in ADT's system 86 minutes, which according to the affidavit would have been enough time to download information into the "intruder's" computer.
ADT security expets were able to trace the call to Pacheco's home on Winthrop Avenue Southwest in Roanoke.
Federal investigators then began monitoring telephone calls made from Pacheco's home, and it was discovered that he continuously gained access to a Michigan-based long distance company. All Net Communications told the FBI that someone using Pacheco's number ran up about 100 hours of illegal long distance use between May 4 and June 30.
From June 4 to June 10, 99 of those calls were made to Community News Service.
At one point the hacker actually locked Community News Service employees out of their own system, Dimmler said. It took nearly three days to get the system back on line and cost the company thousands of dollars.
"We probably lost 20 percent of our customer base," Dimmler said.
FBI agents monitored the hacker's activities for about six weeks. On July 28, agents searched Pacheco's home when he was not there.
The agents failed to find the laptop computer they were searching for, but they did locate a user's manual for an IBM laptop computer, along with a piece of paper indicating that Pacheco was in New York for a visit.
"We think he took the computer with him," Plagenhoef said
A federal grand jury indicted Pacheco in February, but the indictment remained sealed until after he was arrested.
Few details about Pacheco are known, but an employee in Virginia Tech's registrar's office confirmed that he studied computer science there from August to December 1990.
If a guilty plea agreement can be reached, Pacheco's case will be handled by federal authorities in Brooklyn, Plagenhoef said.
"It's our understanding that he has left Roanoke for good," she said.
by CNB