Credit Union identified in computer revenge case of dismissed employee

0


[ad_1]

Source: Shutterstock.

Juliana Barile, who deleted more than 21 gigabytes of data in revenge when she was fired from her job, was an employee of the Penn South Federal Credit Union in New York City, which cost $ 7.9 million.

When prosecutors announced that Barile had pleaded guilty to one count of computer intrusion last month, they did not identify the credit union, its title or the length of its employment. Court documents only identified the New York, NY Credit Union, “an entity whose identity is known to the United States Attorney General” of the Brooklyn-based East New York District.

Usually, credit unions are identified in federal court documents when they are victimized by criminals or people accused of crimes against financial institutions. However, in this case, federal prosecutors and the US attorney’s office did not respond to CU Times’ asks to explain why the identity of the credit union has not been disclosed in any court documents, including the backgrounder detailing Barile’s crime, the plea deal, a press release and a transcript of 60 minutes from the court hearing on August 31 when the former employee pleaded guilty.

A source who spoke on condition of anonymity noted that Matthew Barile, who is believed to be linked to Juliana Barile, has served on the Penn South board since at least 2012, according to his NCUA profile reports.

From June 2012 to December 2017, Matthew Barile served as Chairman of the Board of Penn South and, in 2018 and 2019, he served as Vice Chairman of the Board. The credit union’s 2020 profile report showed that Matthew Barile was a member of the oversight committee and remained a member of that committee until the end of March 2021. He was not listed as a member of the board of directors or member of the supervisory committee, depending on the Penn South profile report filed. with the NCUA at the end of the second quarter.

Penn South part-time CEO Robert Pillartz did not respond to three phone messages and three emails seeking comment.

Juliana Barile’s lawyer declined to comment when he was reached on Thursday.

Two days after her layoff on May 19, she accessed the Credit Union’s file server remotely from her Brooklyn home, and within 40 minutes, she deleted over 20,000 files and 3,500 directories, for a total of of 21.3 gigabytes of data, according to court documents.

The deleted data included mortgage application files and the credit union’s ransomware protection software. Barile also opened confidential files, including documents containing the minutes of the board of directors of the credit union.

“In an act of revenge for being fired, Barile surreptitiously accessed the computer system of his former employer, a New York credit union, and deleted mortgage applications and other sensitive information kept on his server. files, ”Acting US lawyer Jacquelyn M. Kasulis said. said in a prepared statement when Barile’s guilty plea was announced on August 31.

Penn South’s loan portfolio listed 172 home equity loans / lines of credit valued at $ 5,339,847 and seven unsecured loans / lines of credit valued at $ 122,812, according to its appeal report from the 30th. June. Additionally, previous credit union call reports have shown that Penn South exclusively provides mortgages and has not listed any other loans in its portfolio for new or used vehicles, students, credit cards. credit, personal or alternative loans.

On the day Barile was fired, someone at Penn South asked her IT support company to turn off her access to the credit union’s computer system, but it was not turned off, according to court documents.

Although Penn South backed up some of the data Barile deleted, prosecutors said the credit union has so far spent more than $ 10,000 to fix the computer problems.

Even though prosecutors said in a press release that Barile can face up to 10 years in prison, transcripts from his plea hearing indicated that prosecutors should recommend a prison sentence of six to 12 months.

During the hearing, Barile made the following statement: “On or around May 25, 2021, I logged into the credit union computer with my credentials and deleted the shared files. . This happened after the termination, when I was not allowed to log in or touch any of the information. I am guilty of the charges and I plead guilty.

Barile’s sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

[ad_2]

Share.

About Author

Comments are closed.