Fergie's Tech Blog

Computer Hacking Conviction in San Diego

Via FBI.gov.

United States Attorney Karen P. Hewitt announced that Jon Paul Oson was convicted today by a federal jury in San Diego on federal computer hacking charges. Mr. Oson was charged in an indictment on August 25, 2006, with two counts of intentionally damaging protected computers. Following a trial before the Honorable Thomas J. Whelan, United States District Judge, that started on August 21, 2007, Oson was convicted on both counts.

The evidence at trial established that, among other things, as summarized below, Oson deleted patient data of the North County Health Services clinic (“NCHS”), which data was stored at the facilities of Oson’s former employer, the Council of Community Health Clinics (“CCC”), in San Diego. In addition to causing financial losses at CCC, NCHS and other CCC member clinics, the deletion of the data caused patient care at NCHS to suffer.

According to court documents, Mr. Oson was employed as a network engineer and as technical services manager for the Council of Community Health Clinics from May 2004 until October 2005. CCC is a non-profit organization that provides a variety of services to its membership and consists of seventeen Community Health Clinics located in San Diego and Imperial Counties. The largest member clinic is North County Health Services. NCHS, like the other member clinics of CCC, provides medical services to the poor, the uninsured and the under-insured. NCHS used CCC’s information technology services to host and manage its Practice Management system. This software is used by NCHS for billing, scheduling of patient appointments and for tracking medical information of NCHS patients, including diagnosis, treatment plans and case history. Mr. Oson’s resignation from CCC followed a performance evaluation that he perceived as negative.

posted by Fergie @ 8/30/2007 05:32:00 PM