Former Texas Power Company Employee Pinned on Computer Intrusion

Former Texas Power Company Employee Pinned on Computer Intrusion

The FBI is currently probing on a Texas power company hack that brought down its energy forecast system for one day last March. The intrusion cost the company more than $26,000.
An ex-employee of Energy Future Holdings was apprehended on Tuesday by the FBI. Dong Chul Sin was terminated by Energy on March 3 due to poor performance delivery. The company, however, did not manage to take out his VPN access. On the same day, Shin allegedly logged in to his VPN account and transferred proprietary data to his own webmail account. The files were altered and then deleted, according to FBI agent Robert Smith.

The investigation found out that the VPN connection originated from Shin's IP address, which led to his arrest. He is also accused of sending an email to engineering firm running the Comance Peak nuclear reactor.

Shin is facing suspected violation of federal computer crime laws and creating a “a threat to public health or safety.”

Shin's stunt caused financial loss at Energy Future Holdings. The data tampering crippled the EFH management system, resulting to the inability of the company to accurately forecast the parameters needed in running the business a day after the attack.