Magic Wand Man Uses Virus

February 2009

Blaine man pleads guilty to placing virus in computers. A Blaine man charged with sabotaging his former employer’s computer system pleaded guilty to the offense in federal court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The 21-year-old admitted in court January 12 that in April 2008 he intentionally damaged a computer after he was terminated from his job as a help desk employee at Wand Corp. According to his plea agreement, the guilty party worked for the Eden Prairie, Minnesota, firm that provides computers used by retailers and restaurants to conduct cash register transactions. The computers are in individual establishments but can be remotely accessed by Wand using an Internet-based program. About three weeks after he was let go, he unleashed a malicious software attack on Wand computers in about 3,000 restaurants. The attack was designed to crash the client computers. He launched the attack from his home computer and was able to install the virus on about 1,000 computers, his plea agreement said.