SALT LAKE CITY—John Anthony Borell III, age 21, of Toledo, Ohio, is charged with two counts of computer intrusion in a federal indictment unsealed Monday morning in Salt Lake City. The indictment alleges Borell hacked into protected computers without authorization on two occasions in January and intentionally caused damage to servers hosting websites for two Utah law enforcement agencies.
The first count of the indictment charges Borell with an intrusion on January 19, 2012 involving a server hosting a website for the Utah Chiefs of Police Association. The second count alleges a similar attack on January 31, 2012 on the server hosting the Salt Lake City Police Department website. Each count of the indictment alleges the offense caused a loss of more than $5,000.
Borell was arrested in Ohio on March 20, 2012 on a federal complaint. The indictment was returned April 4, 2012. He will be arraigned on the indictment in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City Monday at 12:30 p.m. The arraignment will be in U.S. Magistrate Judge Sam Alba’s courtroom. Borell has been in a halfway house in Ohio pending his appearance in Utah.
Borell was arrested following an investigation by the FBI. According to documents filed in court, a hacker, using his Twitter account, took credit for both of the intrusions and revealed his knowledge of the details of the intrusions by his online comments. FBI agents tracked the IP addresses used in these intrusions to Borell.
According to the complaint, Borell has links to a group associated with the hacker-activist network Anonymous. Anonymous is a loose affiliation of individuals with no defined leadership or membership. In practice, the label Anonymous is the banner under which individuals or groups commit actions, including intrusions into computer systems, the complaint alleges.
Indictments and complaints are not findings of guilt. Individuals charged in indictments or complaints are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in court.
The potential maximum sentence for each count of computer intrusion is 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
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