Trucker pleads guilty in Koch cyberattack

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By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wisconsin trucker who joined a cyberattack on Koch Industries admitted Wednesday his role in the onslaught organized by the computer hacking group known as “Anonymous” that took the Wichita-based company’s website offline for about 15 minutes in February 2011.

Eric Rosol, 37, of Black Creek, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of accessing a protected computer in a deal with prosecutors for reduced charges.

“We were thankful to be able to resolve the case through a misdemeanor that will allow him to move on with his life and allow him to put these felony charges behind him,” his defense attorney, Kurt Kerns, said after the hearing.

The parties have agreed that the direct loss from the attack staged by the computer hacking group Anonymous is less than $5,000. But Koch Industries, one of the largest private companies in the U.S., contends that when it learned of the planned attack, it hired a consulting group at a cost of $183,000 to protect its websites and, if any attack was successful, to minimize its effects, according to the plea deal.

The defense is expected to argue at sentencing on Dec. 2 that the $183,000 expense by Koch is not a loss attributable to Rosol. Kerns said after the hearing that restitution can only be required “as a result of a crime,” not for expenses incurred before a crime is committed. He likened it to trying to collect the cost of a safe before a theft.

It will be up to U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren to decide at sentencing how much in restitution Rosol must pay. He also faces up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

The government agreed in its plea deal to recommend a sentence at the low end of federal sentencing guidelines.

“At the end of the day, the sentence you receive is up to me,” Melgren told the defendant.

In his plea agreement, Rosol admitted that on Feb. 28, 2011, he participated for about one minute in a “Dedicated Denial of Service” Internet attack on the web server for Kochind.com. The indictment alleges that Anonymous asked conspirators in February 2011 to launch a cyberattack that sent a high volume of repeated requests to a Koch website. Numerous conspirators complied, and the company’s website crashed. To date, Rosol is the only person to be charged in the attack.

As part of his agreement with prosecutors, Rosol also agreed to forfeit the computer used in the cyberattack. He also agreed that as part of any probation he would not contact the victim or any website hosted by Koch Industries, Angel Soft or Georgia Pacific.