A California couple from have been indicted over allegations they used their army standing to steal the private data of greater than 9,000 individu
A California couple from have been indicted over allegations they used their army standing to steal the private data of greater than 9,000 individuals.
In accordance with a report from NBC Los Angeles on Wednesday, Natasha Chalk and her husband Marquis Hooper used their positions within the U.S. Navy to entry, then promote the compromised identities for a complete of round $160,000 in bitcoin.
Prosecutors allege the couple meant for the stolen private data for use in crime associated to id theft.
Hooper, who was stationed in Japan on the time, was a chief petty officer with the Navy’s Seventh Fleet, whereas Chalk was a naval reservist stationed at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California.
Final week, the couple had been indicted on fees of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated id theft.
In August 2018, Hooper obtained in contact with an organization storing tens of millions of individuals’s private data and claimed to be conducting background checks on behalf of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet.
Nonetheless, it’s alleged Hooper gave his spouse and others, who weren’t named, entry to the database account. Over the course of two and half months, the couple ran searches on hundreds of individuals.
The illegally obtained private information in the end ended up being utilized in id theft by the recipients, in line with the indictments.
The couple’s lawyer, Michael McKneely, argued that the pair utilized “commercially accessible databases” utilized by on a regular basis individuals and in addition added the motion by the couple was “clearly a part of the scope of their work.”
Prosecutors cite the case of an Arizona man who tried to withdraw cash from a checking account utilizing a pretend driver’s license that Hooper had allegedly discovered within the database.
Chalk was detained on Monday, whereas Hooper was arrested on Tuesday. The pair face a most of 20 years in jail, in line with the report.