Hacker Kills Himself
A criminal hackers named Jesse Kipf from Kentucky in the US, has been sentenced to nearly seven years in prison after hacking into a state database to fake his death, and avoid paying child support. The 39-year-old has admitted to hacking the Hawaii Death Registry System in January 2023 and registering as deceased person, creating his own official death.
Kipf then completed a State of Hawaii Death Certificate Worksheet, assigned himself as the medical certifier for the case and certified his death, using the digital signature of the doctor. This meant he was successfully registered as a deceased person in many government databases.
Kipf’s punishment for pleading guilty to charges of computer fraud and identity theft essentially closes the book on one of the strangest hacking cases seen in the US criminal justice system. Kipf admitted that he did it to avoid his outstanding child support obligations of nearly $200,000.
He also accessed other death registry systems and companies in unrelated attacks that he carried out using the stolen log in details of real physicians and workers.
Kipf was found to be offering to sell access to the systems and selling stolen databases containing private information like Social Security Numbers to other cyber criminals on the DarkNet. The DarkNet is a section of the Internet only accessible through specialist software that hides a browser’s identity. There are many DarkNet marketplaces where cyber criminals sell stolen data or access to compromised IT systems. Kipf sold to international buyers, including individuals from Algeria, Russia and Ukraine, the court was told.
Under US law, Kipf must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence and will be under the supervision of the US Probation Office for three years. The damage to governmental and corporate computer systems and his failure to pay his child support obligations amounted to a total of $195,000.
US Dept of Justice | Washington Post | BBC | Guardian | Standard | @JoeTidy | MSN |
Image: RobVanDerMeijden
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