Hacker ‘Ghost Exodus’ sentenced to nine years in federal prison

As previously reported by Infosecurity, McGraw, then 25, plead guilty to two counts of transmitting malicious code in a Dallas US District Court. Now he has received his punishment from US District Judge Jane J. Boyle, who sentenced him to 110 months in a federal prison.

McGraw will serve jail time concurrently for both charges.

The sentence stems from two separate 2009 incidents where McGraw – the so-called leader of the online hacker group “Electronik Tribulation Army” – illegally accessed computer systems at the North Central Medical Plaza outside Dallas. At the time, McGraw was employed as a overnight security guard at the facility.

In both incidents, McGraw gained unauthorized access to the facility’s computers, even taping and posting a YouTube video of one instance (subsequently pulled by YouTube), where he bypassed the computer’s password system and downloaded malicious code onto a nurse’s station machine.

The 26-year-old from Arlington, Texas, has also been ordered by the court to make restitution to the affected facilities, which include the W.B. Carrell Memorial Clinic, the North Central Surgery Center, and the Cirrus Group.

A statement released by the US Department of Justice said that Judge Boyle, in her sentencing statement, “cited the need for those who commit computer crimes to understand the potentially devastating consequences of their actions, to promote respect for the law, and to deter others involved in or contemplating hacking”.

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