by Robert McMillan

Security: Nailed for Reading the Boss’s E-Mail

News
Jul 01, 20061 min
IT Strategy

A former U.S. government security auditor was sentenced in May to 10 months of jail time and home confinement after admitting to snooping on his supervisor’s computer.

Kenneth Kwak, of Chantilly, Va., pleaded guilty in March to gaining unauthorized access to a government computer. He faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In his plea, Kwak acknowledged snooping in his boss’s files while working on securing U.S. Department of Education computer systems. Kwak then shared information about his supervisor’s e-mail and Internet habits with fellow workers, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Officials say there was no evidence that Kwak made any money from his actions.

In addition to five months in prison followed by five months’ home confinement, Kwak must pay $40,000 to the government and will serve a total of three years of supervised release.

“The prosecution was part of the ‘zero tolerance policy’ recently adopted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding intrusions into U.S. government computer systems,” according to a Justice Department statement.