iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — A former employee of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy was charged on Friday with an attempted cyberattack on department computers.
Charles Eccleston is charged with attempted unauthorized access and intentional damage to a protected computer, attempted unauthorized access to a government computer to obtain information, attempted unauthorized access to a protected computer to defraud and obtain something of value and wire fraud. According to the indictment, Eccleston caused the transmission of emails, which purportedly advertised nuclear training and education conferences, to computers at the DOE. Those emails contained a link that Eccleston believed would infect the computers with a malicious code, while also allowing the removal of sensitive and confidential information.
The charges related to an incident on January 15. Eccleston, the indictment says, aimed to allow a foreign government to cause damage to government computers and access confidential or sensitive information. The country in question is not named in the indictment, though Eccleston was allegedly to receive payment from the foreign government for his role in the cyberattack.
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