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CyberCrime Stories : Justin Tanner Peterson

In 1989, Justin Tanner Peterson a former concert promoter, sound engineer, and private investor, gained unauthorized access to the computer of California's Pacific Bell Telephone to intercept and seize the telephone lines to a local FM radio station. He and two friends had developed a program that could manipulate or ring promotional radio contests by electronically seizing the incoming telephone lines to ensure that they were the only callers able to win contests.

Using this program and gaining access to the telephone lines, the three hackers were able to "win" four cash prizes totalling $40.000 and two trips to Hawaii. Peterson's friend also won two Porsche.

Perhaps jealous of his friends, Peterson stole a Porsche for himself and moved to Texas. While there, he hacked into a national consumer credit reporting agency and obtained credit information with which he was able to order fraudulent credit cards, which then used freely.

Peterson was caught and indicted for various violations of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, including "conspiracy to gain access to a federal interest computer system to carry out a scheme to defraud and to intercept wire and electronic communications.

Peterson agreed to enter into a plea agreement requiring his cooperation in apprehending his two partners. While out on bail to assist the FBI, Peterson committed further computer crimes, including credit-card theft, and was rearrested. During a recess in negotiations with federal prosecutors, Peterson fled. While a fugitive, he hacked into the computers of a small bank, Heller Financial, and obtained the codes necessary to effect a wire transfer from that bank to another bank account.

After setting up his scheme, Peterson then telephoned a bomb threat to Heller Financial. While the building was being evacuated, Peterson executed a $150,000 wire transfer from Heller Financial to Union Bank, routed through Mellon Bank. Fortunately for Heller Financial, the transfer was discovered before Peterson could withdraw the money from Union Bank.

In November 1995, Peterson was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison and three years probation. and was ordered to pay restitution of $40,000. The sentence was upheld on appeal.

About Alessio Marziali

Alessio Marziali (MCTS) is a Security Consultant with 9 years of experience developing secure applications with Microsoft .NET in a variety of sectors in UK and Italy. Published technical author with two ASP.NET books currently available for purchase and OWASP Code Crawler Project Leader.