eCrimeBytes Nibble #3: FEMA IT Staff Gone Wild

Video: https://youtu.be/ex3FdsWuSGU 

Ever wonder how so many identities are stolen? Stick around for this short video about how one FEMA IT employee breached a medical center's employee database and sold it on the dark web.

Justin Sean Johnson was arrested for hacking into the human resource databases of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in 2014, stealing personal data on more than 65,000 current and former UPMC employees, and selling the data on the dark web.

Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh allege that in 2013 and 2014 Johnson hacked into the Oracle PeopleSoft databases for UPMC, a $21 billion nonprofit health enterprise that includes more than 40 hospitals.

The stolen data also included federal form W-2 data that contained income tax and withholding information, records that prosecutors say Johnson sold on dark web marketplaces to identity thieves engaged in tax refund fraud and other financial crimes. The fraudulent tax refund claims made in the names of UPMC identity theft victims caused the IRS to issue $1.7 million in phony refunds in 2014.

On May 5, 2021 Johnson plead guilty and on 10/15/21 he was sentenced to 5 years for one count, and 2 for another count, to run consecutively.

Further reading: https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/04/07/fema-it-staff-arrested-in-id-theft-tax-refund-fraud/