Security News > 2023 > October > Ex-Navy IT manager gets 5 years in slammer for 2018 database heist

While still a chief petty officer, Marquis Hooper accessed a database containing millions of records and over the course of five months sold details of more than 9,000 people online.

Prosecutors said the total sum generated by Hooper and his wife, Natasha Chalk, co-defendant in the case and former Navy reservist, reached the equivalent of $160,000 in Bitcoin.

Court records indicated that in August 2018, Hooper opened an account with an unnamed company that runs a database from which he later went on to steal.

Hooper falsely represented himself to the company, telling it that he required access to the database's personally identifiable information to fulfill background checks for the Navy.

Using the same method Hooper had used months earlier, they instructed the co-conspirator to open the account under the pretense that the Navy required it for background checks.

Furthering their illicit activities, Hooper generated fake documents using the PII he stole from the database in a bid to convince the company that the signatory of the contract was a genuine Navy supply officer, a role with the authority to procure services.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/10/19/navy_it_manager_prison/