Greenville, South Carolina---- United States Attorney W. WALTER WILKINS stated today that RANDALL SCOTT FOSTER, age 38, of Greenville, South Carolina, was sentenced on August 28, 2008, in federal court in Greenville, South Carolina, for accessing a federally protected computer system without authorization and recklessly causing over $5,000 in damages to the computer, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030(a)(5). United States Circuit Judge William B. Traxler, Jr., of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting at the District Court by designation, sentenced FOSTER to 15 months imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release. Foster will also be required to pay $96,000 in restitution to the victim of the computer intrusion.

Foster previously pleaded guilty to accessing the computer system of SDI Networks, a Greenville, South Carolina, area computer services company. Foster was a field engineer employed by SDI, and he became upset with the owner over reimbursements for expenses that he claimed he was owed. After Foster was fired by SDI in late September 2004, he accessed the SDI computer system and as a result, the SDI computer systems were disabled, causing communications essential to its business to be disrupted for several days. SDI spent $96,000 in engineering time to correct the damage caused by the intrusion. When interviewed by agents of the FBI, Foster admitted that he committed the intrusion to retaliate against the owner for firing him and for failing to reimburse him for expenses he thought he was owed.

The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Dean A. Eichelberger of the Columbia office handled the case.