U.S. charges Chinese man with NY Fed software package theft
Posted by Jared v.D. W 18 January, 2012
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors arrested a Chinese pc programmer on charges he stole software program code valued at nearly บ million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Bo Zhang, 32, of Queens, New York, worked as a contract programmer at the bank. He was accused of illegally copying software package to an external hard drive, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. district court in Manhattan.
Authorities mentioned the software program, owned by the U.S. Treasury Department, expense about ű.five million to develop.
A New York Fed spokesman said in a statement that the bank quickly investigated the suspected breach when it was uncovered and promptly referred the matter to authorities.
"The New York Fed has further strengthened its already considerable protections as a result of this incident," the spokesman said.
A federal magistrate judge ordered Zhang released on 赨,000 bail following a brief court hearing. He was arrested on Wednesday morning, a federal prosecutor told the judge.
An attorney for Zhang, Joseph Grob, confirmed his client was a Chinese citizen but declined to comment on the charges. Grob told the judge that Zhang holds a job in New Jersey.
Zhang was charged with 1 count of stealing U.S. government home, which carries a maximum ten year prison term. He is due back in court on February 17.
The complaint, signed by an FBI agent, mentioned Zhang had admitted to copying the code onto a drive and taking it residence.
Zhang told investigators he took the code "for private use and in order to make certain that it was available to him in the event that he lost his job," the complaint stated.
Whilst U.S. intelligence officials have grow to be increasingly worried about economic espionage by China and Russia, cyber crime professionals stated the case appeared to be one particular of straightforward theft.
"The truth that he was released on bail and charged only with theft is an indication that, at this time, the FBI does not think that this is connected to international espionage," mentioned a former law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity simply because he was not authorized to speak by his existing employer.
Zhang was hired as a contract employee in May possibly by an unnamed technology consulting organization used by the Fed to operate on its computers, the complaint said.
The code, called the Government-wide Accounting and Reporting Plan (GWA), was created to assist track the billions of dollars the United States government transfers daily. The GWA offers federal agencies with a statement of their account balance, the complaint mentioned.
Investigators uncovered the suspected breach only following one of Zhang's colleagues told a supervisor that Zhang had claimed to have lost a difficult drive containing the code, the complaint mentioned.
The case is USA v. Bo Zhang, U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York, No. 12-0108.
(Reporting By Basil Katz Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer Editing by Gary Hill, Tim Dobbyn, Steve Orlofsky, Phil Berlowitz)
