LOS ANGELES (CN) – The Los Angeles district attorney on Tuesday announced the arrest of a 31-year-old Texas man suspected of hacking the Los Angeles Superior Court email system this past July.
Investigators say Oriyomi Sadiq Aloba, of Houston, is responsible for a five-day, email-phishing attack that targeted more than 500 employees of the LA Superior Court.
Authorities charged Aloba with 12 counts of false impersonation, five counts altering public safety computer data, software or program and one count of multiple identifying information theft, according to Donn Hoffman with the DA’s cybercrimes division.
According to investigators, Aloba sent emails attempting to fool users into revealing their account credentials by sending them to bogus websites appearing to belong to legitimate companies.
Fewer than a dozen court employees were impacted by the breach and the court says no case information, court data or financial data was compromised.
The DA says Aloba’s scheme cost the LA County Superior Court over $100,000.
Agencies working to arrest Aloba at his home on Nov. 15 included the FBI in LA and Houston, the Houston Police Department and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. He will be arraigned on Dec. 1, and prosecutors have asked for bail to be set at $1.1 million.
Aloba faces up to 14 years and four months in a state prison if convicted on all charges, according to the DA’s office.
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