Brian Salcedo
Brian Salcedo was convicted in 2004 of conspiracy to commit wire and computer fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 for accessing a home improvement chain's wireless LAN in an attempt to recover credit card numbers. Salcedo gained access to the computer system used by the Lowe's chain of home improvement stores and installed a program to capture credit numbers used during transactions at the Southfield store. Lowe's monitored the intrusions while six numbers were captured. Although Salcedo did not view the credit card numbers, the government claims that the crime could have caused more than $2.5 million in damages. Salcedo initially was charged with 16 counts of wire fraud and unauthorized intrusion but plead guilty to reduced charges as part of a plea bargain. At the time of his arrest, He was on a grant of probation within the guidelines of the Holmes Youthful Training Act. Salcedo was sentenced to 9 years in prison for his involvement. The government claims that at the time of its imposition, Salcedo's sentence was the longest federal prison sentence ever given to a hacker for a computer intrusion offense. Prior to Salcedo’s sentence, Kevin Mitnick held the record with a 68-month sentence. Salcedo appealed the sentence, arguing that the actual harm done rather than the potential harm done should be used as a factor to determine the length of the sentence. On July 10, 2006 the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the appeal.
