A computer consultant working in the FBI’s Springfield offices used free programs available on the Internet to breach secure areas of the bureau’s computer system and find administrators’ passwords, including one belonging to FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Joseph Thomas Colon, 28, who was living in Springfield at the time of the 2004 incidents, is to be sentenced next week in U.S. District Court in Washington. In March Colon was charged with and pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor counts of intentionally exceeding his authorized computer access, according to court records that came to light this week.
Working as a consultant assigned to the FBI to improve computer systems, Colon allegedly hacked into the secure area of the network four times that year.
The breach came as Colon worked for BAE Systems on the bureau’s much-criticized and canceled Trilogy project, intended to modernize the FBI’s computers and allow for improved communication.
