NEWS RELEASE
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI
JOHN F. WOOD

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106
www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

MARCH 4, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KC MAN SENTENCED FOR COMPUTER HACKING

KANSAS CITY, MO—John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for hacking into his former employer’s computer network.

Harold James Boomer, 24, of Kansas City was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple this morning to 10 months in federal prison without parole. Boomer has paid $24,000 in restitution to Midwest Technology Connections ( MTC).

On Aug. 13, 2007, Boomer pleaded guilty to unauthorized computer intrusion. Boomer admitted that he hacked into the computer network of MTC, where he had been employed as the lead network engineer before leaving the firm in June 2006 to start his own computer security company, Brickwall Security. During his last day at MTC, Boomer created an administrator user name that was set up to give him complete administrative access to the network, and to monitor the e-mail accounts of key MTC employees. Boomer also admitted that he placed hacking software on MTC’s systems, and that he had access to all of MTC’s customers’ data.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Curt Bohling. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at
www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html