Pierluigi Paganini October 24, 2019

A Texas man found guilty of hacking the Los Angeles Superior Court (LASC) computer system and used it to send out phishing emails.

A Texas man, Oriyomi Sadiq Aloba (33), was found guilty of hacking the Los Angeles Superior Court (LASC) computer system and abusing it to send out roughly 2 million phishing messages. The phishing campaign aimed at obtaining the victims’ credit card numbers.

The man was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner to 145 months in federal jails, the judge also ordered him to pay $47,479 in restitution.

“A Texas man who was found guilty of hacking into the Los Angeles Superior Court (LASC) computer system, using the system to send approximately 2 million malicious phishing emails, and fraudulently obtaining hundreds of credit card numbers was sentenced this afternoon to 145 months in federal prison.” reads the press release published by the DoJ.

In July 2017, Aloba and his co-conspirators compromised the email account of a court employee and used it to send the phishing emails to coworkers. The malicious messages included links to a phishing website set up to request LASC users their email addresses and passwords.

“Thousands of court employees received the Dropbox email, and hundreds disclosed their email credentials to the attacker. The compromised email accounts then were used to send the roughly 2 million phishing emails.” continues the DoJ.

Aloba and his co-conspirators also sent phishing messages pretending to come from American Express, Wells Fargo and other companies. In this case, the links included in the phishing emails were pointing to web pages requesting the victims’ banking credentials, personal details, and credit card information.

The information provided by the victims through the fake American Express website was sent to an email account under the control of the Texan man.

Investigators executed a search warrant at Aloba’s residence and seized a thumb drive that was hidden in a toilet, a damaged iPhone in a bathroom sink, and a laptop with a smashed screen.

In July, Aloba was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud, one count of attempted wire fraud, one count of unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, five counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, and four counts of aggravated identity theft.

The co-defendant Robert Charles Nicholson (28), from New York, pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The man will be sentenced on November 4.

The DoJ also added that three other defendants allegedly hired by Aloba to create the “phishing kits” remain at large outside the United States.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Los Angeles Superior Court, hacking)

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