Legal news for Texas criminal attorneys. A man was arrested for disabling 100 cars via the Internet.
Austin Police alerts criminal attorneys- A former car dealership employee set car horns off and disabled cars via the Internet.
Austin, TX—A man who was recently fired from a Texas automobile dealership hacked into an Internet service to remotely disable and set off car horns and alarms in over 100 vehicles that were sold from the dealership. Austin police officers arrested Omar Ramos-Lopez, 20, on Wednesday, March 17, 2010, with felony charges of breach of computer security, as reported by ABC News.
According to the Austin police, “ He caused these customers, now victims, to miss work… they didn’t get paid. They had to get tow trucks. They didn’t know what was going on with their vehicles.” Ramos-Lopez allegedly hacked into an Internet service using a former co-workers password to deactivate starters and set off car horns. Tow trucks were called and people were left stranded at work as a result of his actions. The Texas Auto center dealership in Austin apparently installs GPS devices, which is used to repossess cars when payments are overdue. These GPS devices can also prevent cars from starting and can activate the car horns when repo agents believe the owners are hiding the vehicles.
Dealership employees started noticing usual transactions in their business records in mid-February. Apparently someone was hacking into the system and changing names of customers to other alias like the deceased rapper, Tupac Shakur, who apparently bought a 2009 vehicle. Then calls began to flood in with complaints that consisted of cars not starting and their horns mysteriously going off, which has gotten so bad that some of the customers had to disengage their vehicles batteries. At first the dealership thought the vehicles had some sort of mechanical problem. Not long after, employees noticed that $130,000 worth of parts and equipment has been ordered by the company that makes the GPS devices. Police officials were able to trace the transactions back to the disgruntled former employee’s computer, which lead to his arrest. Ramos-Lopez is currently being held at Travis County Jail with a bond of $3,000.
Legal News Reporter: Nicole Howley-Legal news for Texas criminal lawyers.
