A hacker attempted to blackmail hotel chain Marriott International into giving him a job after illicitly obtaining and threatening to reveal sensitive information about the company.

 

The 26-year old man was subsequently sentenced to more than two years in prison, according to a report on technology news site Zdnet.

 

"On 11 November, 2010, [the man] emailed Marriott personnel, advising that he had been accessing Marriott's computers for months and had obtained proprietary information. [He] threatened to reveal this information if Marriott did not give him a job maintaining the company's computers," the US Department of Justice said in a statement. "On 13 November 2010, after receiving no response from Marriott, [he] sent another email containing eight attachments, seven of which were confirmed as documents stored on Marriott's computer system,” the statement added.

 

 

The hacker gained access to the company's systems after sending an infected email attachment to specific Marriott employees, according to the Zdnet report.

 

Source: Zdnet
 

 

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