How to Get Arrested Instead of Getting a Job

A person who wanted to get a job with the Marriott hotel chain found himself in prison instead. Attila Nemeth, 26, appeared to be a Hungarian hacker, who broke into the Marriott’s servers and threatened to expose its personal information if the company didn’t hire him.

Actually, this move did grab the company’s attention, but unfortunately for the applicant, Marriott preferred to call the police on the issue. The Hungarian pleaded guilty to a charge of hacking into the hotel chain’s computer systems, and threatening to expose confidential data obtained if the company didn’t offer him a position.

Attila Nemeth sent an email to the company’s HR department, saying them that he had been accessing the Marriot’s PCs for months and had accessed proprietary data. After the company ignored the hacker, he sent another email with eight enclosed documents that used to be stored on Marriott’s systems. There the guy threatened to reveal the obtained data if the company rejects to give him a job in its IT department.

The company spent time on cooperating with the American Secret Service, creating the identity of fictitious Marriott employee to be used during an undercover operation to communicate with the intruder. The hacker believed he was talking to the company’s HR personnel, and kept calling and emailing the undercover agent. He even emailed a copy of his passport and had travel arranged to the US.

Attila Nemeth flew to Washington on an airline ticket bought by Marriott for him, for a scheduled job interview with Marriott personnel. Instead, the guy was “interviewed” by a Secret Service agent pretending a Marriott employee. During the “interview”, the hacker admitted that he had accessed the corporate computer systems, stole Marriott’s sensitive data and initiated the threatening letters to the company, promising to publish the information unless he was given a job. It turned out that Nemeth gained access through malware sent to certain employees at the company.

The company explained that it cost up to $1 million in salaries, consultant services and other expenses to fix the hack. According to local media reports, the guy faces up to ten years in prison for the transmission of the malicious code. In addition, he may face up to 5 more years for threatening to expose sensitive data.