The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Kansas City man Nicholas Michael Kloster has entered a guilty plea over his involvement in attacks against several organizations that had been conducted to promote the cybersecurity services he has been offering, SecurityWeek reports.
After abusing his employer's credit card to purchase a thumb drive for hacking activities, which had led to his termination, Kloster entered a gym and used its computer to access its surveillance cameras and later changed his membership fee and removed his photo from the system before informing the gym regarding the infiltration and touting the extensive use of his cybersecurity services within the area the following day, according to court documents. Another intrusion against a non-profit entity was conducted by Kloster almost a month later, with physical access to the organization enabling the usage of a boot disk for credential modification and network compromise, as well as VPN installation for potential remote access. Aside from being ordered to pay damages to victims, Kloster could be imprisoned for up to five years, with three years of supervised release, as well as be imposed a $250,000 fine.
After abusing his employer's credit card to purchase a thumb drive for hacking activities, which had led to his termination, Kloster entered a gym and used its computer to access its surveillance cameras and later changed his membership fee and removed his photo from the system before informing the gym regarding the infiltration and touting the extensive use of his cybersecurity services within the area the following day, according to court documents. Another intrusion against a non-profit entity was conducted by Kloster almost a month later, with physical access to the organization enabling the usage of a boot disk for credential modification and network compromise, as well as VPN installation for potential remote access. Aside from being ordered to pay damages to victims, Kloster could be imprisoned for up to five years, with three years of supervised release, as well as be imposed a $250,000 fine.
