The Former Federal Employee Who Tried to Launch a Cyberattack on Nuclear Scientists

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2016/02/former-federal-employee-who-tried-launch-cyberattack-nuclear-scientists/125694/

By Kaveh Waddell
The Atlantic
February 4, 2016

A nuclear scientist formerly employed by the federal government admitted 
Tuesday that he tried to infect the computers of about 80 government 
employees whom he believed had access to nuclear materials and weapons.

According to court documents released by the Justice Department, the 
scientist, Charles Eccleston, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted 
unauthorized access to a protected computer.

Until he was fired in 2011, Eccleston worked for the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, a federal agency that oversees civilian use of radioactive 
materials. During his time at the commission, he held a security clearance 
in order to work on nuclear-energy issues, according to the documents. A 
year after his federal government job ended, he moved to Manila, the 
capital of the Philippines.

In 2013, Eccleston went to the Manila embassy of an unidentified foreign 
country, and offered to sell foreign officials a list of thousands of 
federal employees’ email accounts for $18,800. He said the addresses were 
“top secret” and used for official communication. As a negotiating ploy, 
he said he would take the list to China, Venezuela, or Iran if the embassy 
didn’t want them.

[...]

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