A Kansas City man who hacked into the systems of multiple organizations in an effort to advertise his cybersecurity services has pleaded guilty, authorities announced on Wednesday.
Nicholas Michael Kloster, 32, was charged last year with accessing a protected computer and obtaining information, and reckless damage to a protected computer during unauthorized access.
Court documents, which describe three incidents, show that Kloster’s ‘hacker attacks’ were bold rather than sophisticated.
In one case, he entered the premises of a gym and accessed a computer to enable him to remotely access their security cameras. He also reduced his membership to $1 and erased his photo from the company’s systems.
The next day he sent one of the gym’s owners an email describing his ‘hacking’ activities and offering his cybersecurity services, claiming to have assisted dozens of businesses in the area.
Roughly one month later, he gained physical access to a computer owned by a non-profit organization and used a boot disk to change user passwords and access the victim’s network, also installing VPN software, likely in an effort to enable remote access at a later time.
Prior to these incidents, Kloster used a credit card belonging to his employer to make unauthorized purchases, including a thumb drive designed for hacking. His employment was terminated following the incident.
Kloster has now pleaded guilty to computer hacking and faces a sentence of up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release, in addition to being ordered to pay restitution to the victims for the damages caused by his actions.
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