A federal indictment unsealed yesterday alleges that a 35-year-old Texas man hacked into the computer network of an Eden Prairie business and stole approximately $274,000. The indictment, which was filed in Minneapolis on October 13, 2010, charges Jeremey Parker, of Houston, Texas, with one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer in furtherance of fraud and one count of wire fraud. The indictment was unsealed following Parker’s initial appearance in U.S. District Court.
The indictment alleges that from December 23, 2008, through October 15, 2009, Parker hacked into the computer network in order to obtain money belonging to Digital River, Inc., a cyber-based business, through a subsidiary, SWReg., Inc. SWReg. pays independent software developers who write code that can run on Digital River’s system. Royalties owed to those developers are accumulated at SWReg, and the developers have the ability to go online, view the royalty balances in their accounts, and, ultimately, cash out those accounts. When a particular developer cashes out an account, SWReg electronically transfers the money into the developer’s account, mails the developer a check or has a credit made to the developer’s PayPal account.
Parker, the indictment alleges, hacked into SWReg’s system and caused the money to be wire transferred to his bank account instead of the accounts of several developers.
If convicted, Parker faces a potential maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charge and ten years on the computer hacking charge. All sentences will be determined by a federal district court judge.
Earlier this year, Digital River had another reported hacking incident. That incident reportedly involved hackers in India and a New York man who was suspected of trying to sell information on 200,000 individuals to a firm in Colorado.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Minnesota
This is money siphoning, not a breach. The earlier incident was a breach. This is corporate e-transfer check fraud, something people don’t understand but a growing problem.