Hacking Actor Gets Jail Time, Must Pay Restitution

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/162983.html

By Michael Bartlett, Newsbytes
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.
09 Mar 2001, 6:06 PM CST

An aspiring actor, who turned hacker to steal lists of acting jobs,
was sentenced today in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Chad Horton, 21, of Macon, Ga., who pleaded guilty to computer access
fraud, a felony, was sentenced to 180 days in county jail and three
years supervised probation. He must also pay $92,111 in restitution to
the company and give $200 to the California victim's restitution fund,
according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Jonathan Fairtlough.

Horton also was forced to forfeit his computer.

He hacked into the system at Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Breakdown
Services on several occasions between Jan. 1, 1999 and March 14, 2000,
to steal lists of acting jobs, the prosecutor said. The lists, known
as "breakdowns," consist of character synopses in scripts and are
resold to casting directors and talent representatives.

Weekly breakdowns are not normally available to actors. However,
Horton and Valerie Fee, 58, of Manhattan Beach, Calif., sold the lists
to performers.

Fee pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property in January and was
sentenced to spend 60 days in county jail with the option of community
service and three years probation. She was ordered to pay $10,000
restitution to Breakdown Services and $200 to the California victim's
restitution fund.

"I think the sentence given and the restitution imposed is something
the victim, the prosecution agency and the arresting agency (are)
comfortable with," said Fairtlough. "It was an appropriate sentence."

The sentence was the result of a plea bargain.

Fairtlough said Horton might appeal the amount of restitution.
Horton's attorney did not return phone calls for this story.

Peter Weiss, executive vice president of Breakdown Services, said the
company arrived at the restitution amount by adding together several
factors.

"The figure is a combination of the actual dollars spent to fix the
computer he hacked into, plus the cost of security and hiring a
security consultant to protect our system," Weiss said. "In addition,
he stole our password file, so we had to recreate 740 passwords for
our clients.

"Finally, we gave a conservative estimate of the amount of money we
lost because of what he was selling. That amount was based on what was
in his computer," Weiss said.

Weiss said he think the defendants received fair sentences, adding he
does not expect Horton to pay the entire restitution amount.

"The guy did something that was, in my mind, quite stupid. The
judgment is fair given what he did. Horton is not part of our
community, but Valerie Fee is a manager and her son is an actor, so
she should have known better," he said.

Weiss said Horton is an example of the sort who preys on actors. He
said perhaps 100,000 people consider themselves actors, but only
10,000 make a living wage from it.

"This is a high-profile community, but it is, in a way, a desperate
one," he said. "The system of sending out breakdowns to casting
directors works. If a casting director gets too many submissions when
a part is open, say a guest star on 'Frasier,' then it becomes too
unwieldy. If people steal breakdowns and submit themselves for all the
parts, then the system will fail."

More information on Breakdown Services is available on the Web at
http://www.breakdownservices.com .

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