Former Locke Lord IT engineer gets 9 years, owes $1.69M for hack into firm's computer system
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A former information technology engineer for Locke Lord was sentenced Thursday to more than nine years in federal prison for hacking into the 1,000-attorney firm’s computer system on two days in December 2011, some four months after he stopped working there.
Anastasio Laoutaris, now 41, was convicted by a jury in Dallas in October of knowingly accessing a computer network without authorization and intentionally issuing commands and codes that damaged the network, as Courthouse News and Law.com reported at the time.
In addition to his 115-month prison term, Laoutaris was ordered to pay $1.69 million in restitution, Courthouse News reports.
He had worked for Locke Lord for about five years prior to August 2011, when he left the firm, Law.com says.
Reported details are not explicit about what exactly federal prosecutors accused Laoutaris of doing: A news release last year for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas says he “accessed the firm’s computer network without authorization on Dec. 1, 2011, and Dec. 5, 2011, and on both occasions, issued instructions and commands that caused significant damage to the network, including deleting or disabling hundreds of user accounts, desktop and laptop accounts, and user e-mail accounts.”
Firm spokeswoman Julie Gilbert said after the conviction that client information was “never compromised,” which was the most important thing. “We are pleased that law enforcement authorities and the jury took this criminal activity seriously and sent a message that conduct threatening the information technology of law firms and businesses will not be tolerated.”
Laoutaris could have gotten as much as 10 years and a $250,000 fine on each of the two counts on which he was convicted.
The articles don’t include any comment from him or his legal counsel. Law.com said attorney John Teakell represented Laoutaris at trial but did not immediately respond to a request for comment after his client’s conviction.
