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ATLANTA (AP) — A former employee of a medical device packaging company has pleaded guilty to damaging a computer belonging to his former employer, which prosecutors said caused a delay in the delivery of personal protective equipment to health care providers.
Christopher Dobbins, 40, pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless damage to a protected computer, the U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta said in a news release Friday.
Dobbins, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth, received his last paycheck on March 26 and three days later used a fake user account he had created while working there to access the company’s computer systems, prosecutors said. He then created a second fake user account and used that to edit 115,581 records and delete 2,371 records before deactivating both fake accounts and logging out, prosecutors said.
That caused delays of 24 to 72 hours in shipments of personal protective equipment that the company would normally be able to deliver on the same day, according to court filings. The company packages and distributes protective equipment including masks, gloves and gowns.
Dobbins is set to be sentenced Oct. 16.
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