21 year old pleads guilty to hacking court database and multinational corporation
Source Reddit Cybersecurity
Discussion
A 21-year-old individual pleaded guilty to hacking the Stark County Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) and a multinational corporation in Connecticut. The intrusions occurred in 2023 and 2024, involving unauthorized access to sensitive personal and employee data. The attacker used custom programs and malware, employing proxy servers to conceal identity. He also destroyed digital evidence to obstruct the federal investigation. Sentencing is pending, with potential prison time estimated between 21 to 27 months due to mitigating factors.
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Michael Rogers, a 21-year-old Canton man, pleaded guilty this week in U.S. District Court to computer fraud and destruction of records for hacking the Stark County Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) and an unnamed multi-national corporation based in Connecticut.
The Stark County Breach: Between January and October 2024, Rogers used a custom computer program to scrape and query the CJIS database, saving the private personal data of nearly 300,000 individuals onto his hard drive. He used proxy servers to rotate his IP address and disguise his identity.
The Connecticut Breach: In 2023, Rogers deployed malware against a Connecticut-based company to extract sensitive employee information, compromising more than 150,000 corporate user IDs, passwords, and employee names.
Destruction of Evidence: Following media coverage of the data breaches, Rogers destroyed a phone, computer, and hard drive containing crucial digital evidence between June and July 2025 to obstruct the federal investigation.
Rogers entered his guilty plea before Magistrate Judge Jennifer Dowdell Armstrong. The case has been referred to U.S. District Judge Charles E. Fleming for final sentencing.
Maximum Penalties: Computer fraud carries up to five years in prison, while destruction of records in a federal investigation carries a maximum of 20 years. Each charge carries a potential fine of up to $250,000.
Sentencing Guidelines: Due to mitigating factors—specifically his early cooperation and acceptance of responsibility—federal guidelines estimate a likely sentence between 21 to 27 months in prison. A final sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
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