Adam Botbyl is an American computer

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...

from

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. He gained unauthorized access to the Lowes corporate computer network via an open, unsecured wireless access point used by the

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. ( ) is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States. As of October 28, 2022, Lowe's and i ...

chain of home improvement and hardware stores. The access point was initially discovered inadvertently by his then-roommate, Paul Timmins. Months later, Botbyl and Salcedo returned to explore and exploit the network at a store located in

Southfield, Michigan Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Southfield borders Detroit to the north, roughly northwest of downtown Downtown Detroit, Detroit. As of the 2020 Uni ...

. They then attempted to install a program that could have allowed them to capture the credit card information of customers conducting transactions through the Southfield store. The government claimed that the crime could have caused more than $2.5 million in damages. The three men were initially charged with 16 counts of wire fraud and unauthorized intrusion. Botbyl pleaded guilty to one count of

Conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...

, and the remaining counts were dismissed on the government's motion, per a plea bargain. Ultimately, Botbyl was sentenced to 26 months imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release. On September 1, 2006, Botbyl was released from

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...

custody. His supervised release ended seven months early, on January 28, 2008.

References

# "Second hacker who entered Lowe's computers gets 26 months." December 16, 2004. ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' (commonly referred to as the ''Freep'') is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of ''USA Today''), and is operated by the Detro ...

''. # # "Wardriving guilty plea in Lowe's wi-fi case", SecurityFocus, August 5, 2004
Article
# "Judgement in a Criminal Case, 5:03CR53-02, Western District of North Carolina" December 16, 2004
Judgment in a Criminal Case
{{DEFAULTSORT:Botbyl Botbyl, Adam Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) American people convicted of fraud

See also

References