Man Admits Hacking into His Former Employer's Network

A Tennessee man last Friday pleaded guilty to illegally hacking into his former employer's computer networks for nearly a two-year period and pilfering proprietary business information worth roughly $425,000, according to an announcement Friday by the Department of Justice.

Jason Needham, 45 and co-owner of HNA Engineering, admitted to illegally accessing the computer networks of his former employer Allen & Hoshall, an engineering company and competitor to his firm.

During the two-year period, Needham repeatedly infiltrated Allen & Hoshall's servers to download digitally rendered engineering diagrams, as well as more than 100 project proposals and documents relating to his competitor's budget. Needham also acknowledged he hacked into the email of a former colleague at Allen & Hoshall, which provided him access to information about the company's marketing plans, project proposals, and fee structures, as well as rotating account credentials for Allen & Hoshall's in-house document–sharing system.

Needham is scheduled for sentencing on July 14 in a Tennessee US District Court.

Read the DOJ release here.