Yes. I have a federal felony conviction for fraud involving a computer, against a former employer. Good times.
I've worked for 2-4 companies since then, depending on how you count acquisitions. I've even been trusted to write code that has touched a lot of financial transactions for customers. I doubt I would have been able to stay employed if I didn't have some dedicated advocates, mostly at the CTO level.
At my last (very small) company, my background never even came up. No check at all.
I've also spent a few years scraping by as an indie mobile developer with up to 15 apps in the different stores. With just a bit of a corporate shield, nobody even needs to know who you are.
In the software/IT field, I've met and even worked with plenty of people with criminal records. Multiple DUIs. Two that were convicted of vehicular manslaughter or something similar. Plenty of drug offenses.
You may want to check out Underdog Devs. You're likely too experienced for their mentee program but at one time they had a good list of tech companies willing to hire people with criminal records.
> I guess the ex-admin wants to work in manual labor or fast food
You'd be surprised. I did something somewhat similar and was convicted of a federal felony. No fast food place or retailer would touch me with that record. But ironically I've found plenty of IT work with smaller companies.
Ironically, we are much laxer on those with more responsibility. When was the last time a middle manager or senior executive had to pass a piss test to be employed? It's routine in blue collar work.
Not in Wall St for sure. Or they make sure the "right people" know it's coming ahead of time so they can buy the right stuff to cheat the tests. Plenty of drug use by managers in a lot of organizations I've been involved in. None were ever fired for it. A few were fired for the damaging behavior that resulted from it.
Glossed over it. Good catch. Interesting enough, my post still is pretty accurate reply if you drop the "not" at the beginning and look at it from who gets ahead in their special clubs.
Federal sentencing guidelines are pretty rigid and most computer fraud and abuse cases get the lowest end of the range.
The EFF has a good breakdown of weev's sentence and the D&D-like charts and calculations used to reach it. He got hammered for "special skill", "sophisticated means" and "means of identification" bonuses.
> I'd be very curious to hear what went on there on the people side of things.
It's important to study that in these cases. I was convicted in a similar case and am actually a chapter in a CERT book, but they never reached out to me for my input, so they're completely oblivious to my motives and missing key facts about the case. I'd write more about it or speak at conferences but I've been able to bury that past and move on. Maybe some day.
I think he had a similar case to mine where he felt he was stuck in a situation with his manager(s) and felt like he had no recourse. HR should be involved in employee reviews and should provide a way for the employee to give feedback on his own review.
Another aspect of it is education about the law. I see case after case where the defendant had no idea he could face federal charges at all, much less one that can result in such stiff penalties. (The penalties he was facing were much, much worse if he had been tried and convicted rather than taking this plea deal.) That could easily be part of any degree program and/or employee orientation.
If a company is bringing in child labor in dangerous factories, and employing prostitutes to gratify the upper management, while you're being whipped daily, would that, maybe be an excuse?
I know it's a really out there example, but there are times where outright rebellion, even destructively, is morally acceptable. I don't know the specifics of this example, however.
That's a pretty big strawman. A better recourse would be to whistle blow in that scenario. Though clearly that carries a great deal of personal risk too.
Destroying a company damages all of that companies customers and employees as well. The difference between a surgical strike of a "bad guy" and carpet bombing a country.
Corrupt stuff in third world countries do not get entire chapters in CERT books - that's where things like these are expected to happen. Over and over again.
The NSA spying incident that Snowden revealed wasn't a third world country. Then again, he didn't take down the NSA's routers or spying aparatus on the way out either.
> HR should be involved in employee reviews and should provide a way for the employee to give feedback on his own review.
One issue I see here is that HR usually sides with management and tend to label you as a troublemaker whenever you disagree with something or someone. HR should always be neutral and they are usually far from it.
I have a federal felony conviction, for nearly the same exact offense that Jason is being charged with. I've worked for several software companies since my conviction, before starting my own. It definitely doesn't end your career.
Well he was kind of railroaded by a law that sucks. $9,000 in damages by planting 3 files on a website? Worse, it's impossible to argue intent / mens rea in these cases. It doesn't matter if your intent was to cause no damage because the crime isn't defined by the damage but by the access. As long as you intended to access the internet-connected device, and knew you were exceeding your permitted access, you're guilty. The "damage" doesn't have to be intentional.
The opportunity is gone now, but I really wish he'd fought this case and gotten it in front of a jury. It's very technical testimony and I think a jury could really question the damage amount. If it were below $5,000 this law doesn't apply. How much did it really cost? They had to delete 3 files and apply patches that they should have applied all along.
It's also just weird how punishment scales work. I used to go to my probation officer's office and see all the other guys he was monitoring. Most were serious drug dealers or weapons violations. It seemed so out of whack. But then when I'd go do community service I'd see people sentenced to 20 hours of community service, hundreds of dollars in fines, and weeks in jail for crap like shoplifting a 99 cent air freshener or a pack of cigarettes.
His lawyer was probably very right. He's conceding on this thread a fact pattern that will, by the jury instructions, mechanically result in a conviction. He'd spent many tens of thousands of dollars to achieve the same guilty verdict, with the sweetener of a short custodial sentence.
I'm not entirely sure what the punishment Scott received actually was, but he served no time, so it sounds like his sentencing level was below the noise floor.
I believe he got almost exactly what I got: six months "imprisonment" (served as home detention), five years probation, restitution ($9,000-ish for him), 100 hours of community service, and a few assorted court and administrative fees. Probably also had to pay fees for an ankle monitor system while on home detention, but not sure.
Unless it's changed, I think under the normal federal sentencing guidelines, that amount of "damage" doesn't even qualify for any prison time at all, but the specific offense overrides that to impose a minimum of six months. That's because of a little outcry in the 1990s over hackers not serving any time and the (maybe valid) perception that they actually benefited from the notoriety of a conviction.
It's a federal felony. There's only one way to expunge that, a Presidential pardon. It's a long process and kind of a long shot. I haven't even applied for mine.
He should definitely apply for his rights restoration when eligible. I got mine done. Florida isn't currently restoring firearm ownership rights but that's good to get done if they ever start doing it again.
I've worked for 2-4 companies since then, depending on how you count acquisitions. I've even been trusted to write code that has touched a lot of financial transactions for customers. I doubt I would have been able to stay employed if I didn't have some dedicated advocates, mostly at the CTO level.
At my last (very small) company, my background never even came up. No check at all.
I've also spent a few years scraping by as an indie mobile developer with up to 15 apps in the different stores. With just a bit of a corporate shield, nobody even needs to know who you are.
In the software/IT field, I've met and even worked with plenty of people with criminal records. Multiple DUIs. Two that were convicted of vehicular manslaughter or something similar. Plenty of drug offenses.
You may want to check out Underdog Devs. You're likely too experienced for their mentee program but at one time they had a good list of tech companies willing to hire people with criminal records.