“…an infected email attachment (was) sent to some Marriott employees to install malicious software on the company’s system that gave him a “backdoor” access to proprietary email and other files…”
“…Nemeth sent an email to Marriott staff on November 11 last year, informing them that he had been accessing Marriott’s computers for months and had obtained proprietary information… He threatened to reveal the information if Marriott did not give him a job maintaining the company’s computers…”
A Hungarian citizen has pleaded guilty to stealing confidential information from the computers of Marriott International, and threatening to reveal the information if the hotel chain did not offer him a job maintaining the company’s computers, the Department of Justice said.
Attila Nemeth, 26, pleaded guilty in a US court, according to a statement by DOJ. He was detained after he travelled to the states on a ticket purchased by Marriott for a fictitious job interview.
As he had not received a response from Marriott, Nemeth sent another mail on November 13 containing eight attachments, seven of which were documents stored on Marriott’s computers. The documents included financial documentation and other confidential and proprietary information, the DOJ said.
A US Secret Service agent, using the identity of a fictitious employee of Marriott, communicated with Nemeth on November 18, who continued to call and email the undercover agent demanding a job to prevent the public release of the documents, according to the plea agreement. Nemeth emailed a copy of his Hungarian passport as identification and offered to travel to America, according to the DOJ.
For more:Â http://news.techworld.com/security/3320672/marriott-hotel-chain-hacked-by-disgruntled-job-seeker/
