Hacker pleads guilty for shutting down power grid
A California man pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he shut down the data center responsible for managing the state’s electrical supply. Lonnie Denison, 33, is now facing as much as five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine after admitting to breaking a glass cover and hitting the emergency “off” switch at the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) data center in Folsom, California, on April 15. By doing so, he shut off the power in the data center. He was formerly a contract Unix system administrator at the center. Cal-ISO is the nonprofit organization that manages California’s power. By knocking these systems offline, Denison effectively cut the state off from the energy market, leaving California vulnerable to blackout conditions. No blackouts occurred, however, because the data center went down at 11:23 p.m. on a Sunday — a time when electricity demand is typically at a lull.
It’s not clear why Denison would have wanted to flip the switch on California’s power, but according to U.S. attorneys, he was in a dispute with co-workers and just minutes before the incident had discovered that his computer privileges had been revoked. Prosecutors allege that he followed up the power outage by sending an e-mail bomb threat the next day to an unnamed Cal-ISO employee, saying, “Hey, at one point I respected you … you have a new kid. So this is only because of him. Get out before the timer expires. Not long now. Take care.” Following this threat, Cal-ISO evacuated about 500 employees from all three of its Folsom campus buildings, transferring control of the grid to a second control center. I guess this guy watched Die Hard 4 too many times…
Source: PCworld
Comments(53)
lol that guy is a total tard.
“I guess this guy watched Die Hard 4 too many times…”
LMAO.
Ouch five years in prison. =\
what the hell, stop with the first POsts, if u have nothing to comment on in here why even post? that is so damn childish and old.
I am glad SoCal didnt lose power over this immature incident. could u imagine the havok it could have brought on by this?
im pretty sure he tried to escape with this http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00ghatpoRrmEZeM/RC-Helicopter-Hughes-300.jpg
Lol…
Funny stuff
And guys just forget about the first posters,
it doesn’t really effect me, unless I do it for a joke
So braking glass is a hack?
Apparently the definition for a hacker has hit an all-time low. Nowadays you can be a hacker by flipping a switch… sheesh. O_o
Well, he did break windows to do it…
ITS A FIRESALE!!!!!!!!!
pushing a button? hacker? former system admin? huh?
Right, the biggest hack to date…
“I broke a window, I am s0 l33t h4×0r !!!1″
#8
“Well, he did break windows to do it…”
Best joke i’ve read this month!
^^ heh yeah I think someone didn’t get it.
I can’t believe they actually made a switch that did that lol
Yeah your right, I didn’t get it at first. After some intense thinking I finally managed to grasp the concept, right after I hit “submit comment” button
God damn typos… *You’re
I just broke my neighbour Pc Monitor so I could hack her password..to bad did not go well..hack failed
then I remember I shud have punched into the CPU..Alrite Bye guys..going to try new hack.. happy breaking..err..I mean hacking ;p
@17 It failed tooo
Mom said never try hacking again looser…
I meant @18
Damn I am a big looser
Hacker? I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
Obviously, this dude spent WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to much time playing Halo 3.
seriousily though….he wanted to act like the guy from DH4….
just because it was done in the movie doesnt make it “real”
he wanted to be famous but it all came crashing on him…lol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_definition_controversy
i believe you have my stapler
you go and r4pe a kid, and you wont get this high amount of a penalty. but disconnect the power grid of a company, or worse, make a mistake in your taxes and booom, you are worse than a chiId m0lester.
capitalist democracy at work.
“Hacker pleads guilty for (…) breaking a glass cover and hitting the emergency “off” switch at the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) data center in Folsom”
Some hacker he is… Just as well they could call him an assassin,
or even better in th context: a spy – “cuz’ he infiltrated our security system Judge”. 
D
what a dumb reason to get 5yrs in slammer,imagine him being among thugs..lol
#14: You can’t believe a datacenter would have an emergency cutoff switch? Really?
All of california’s power hangs over one Easy button? how sad and funny
“When Unix admins go baaaaaad. Next, on FOX!”
heehee
Well, being a Nix geek and a geek by trade, I’d be pissed too if my ‘computer privileges’ were ‘revoked’. But, I am sure there WAS a reason. Kiddie porn probably.
At least he was not trying to download a movie or music, he would have got in real trouble then.
If you’re an admin it’s you who revokes privileges, not ppl who do it to you. Anyways he could of just brute forced the passwords.
Ok guys. Here you can find the real meaning of the word “hacker”.
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Hacker
Hacking dates back to early Roman times. However, back then there was very little to ‘hack’ – only stone tablets. People who would sneak in at night and change the contents of a stone tablet by ‘hacking’ at it with a hammer and chisel… hence the name, ‘hacker’. Those who did only damage were known as ‘crackers’, since they’d just run in and smash the stone tablets.
LOL ROFL
What a loser
Wow.. I’m really not going to bother with this site anymore.
lol that was pretty cool anger management. Instead of shooting everyone and then himself he cut the main line. He is not a tard he is a genius. how many of us would love to be in that point of power! HELL YEAH! DDestroy all that is banking, credit cards, finance, Stock market! And rebuild a better world where people dont worship the almighty dollar, or euro, or gold. We create WARS! wars do not create themselves! The real battle is in your back pocket! The interent and the whole world wont shut down because the stock crashes. It will seem so for a year but if they cant rebuild it then they will change! WE CONTROL THIS COUNTRY NOT THE GOVERNMENT!
Comunist? or Democracy?
5 years is a bit steep if he learnt his lesson.
There’s always more to the story than meets the eye and I’m sure most of us have done something totally stupid in the heat of the moment.
Shudda Sent Him to the electric chair.
He deserved it.
Every one knows the button is supposed to be on.
What good is an OFF switch?
In every building is a special button that controls something, nobody may push it cause terrible things could happen
but in the article it says: Cal-ISO evacuated about 500 employees from all three of its Folsom campus buildings, transferring control of the grid to a second control center
so he really didn’t know what could happen
He thought the building would explode or something
push the button and auto destuct will begin count down lol
damn terrorist. hope they hang him by the balls in prison.
damn that some serious hax right there
that’s*
He’s no better than a terrorist imho
His antics could have harmed the interests of this great nation
Hopefully our mighty justice systen will declare him an an enemy combatant and send his ass straight to Guantanamo
That’s where people like him deserve to be
Hehe… hacker definition:
A person who use toothpicks or duct tape to fix car engines. If car engines are not available, they will attempt to seek out anything and everything relating to “Telnet.”
+
OR
+
Hacker is a term used by players of the online game Counter-Strike used to describe people who are better than the person using the term.
———————————–
At least they’re honest.
This is nothing…I heard somebody is planning to hack the most uber switch ever, one that shuts off the galaxy! But, it’s just a rumor, and I’m pretty sure there are safety features installed such as glass wrapped in cardboard.
@41
I think you missed the point, he later sent an email warning that the timer (on a bomb?) was running out – that’s when they evacuated (not when he pushed the button)
re25:
Reminds me of ‘Dr Strangelove’ and the guard telling Peter Sellars that he will have to answer to the Coca Cola Co for shooting up their machine – the reason was to get change to ring POTUS that one of his Generals had just launched WW III. Great priorities – business must triumph,
Citizens -to the barracades
penis!
Wtf Why is he called a hacker?
Ok I go around flipping switches and I become a Hacker LOL
I’ll tell you why he’s cause a hacker,
its called linkbait people!!
It was a BRUTE FORCE ATTACK!!
Smash glass…. push the red button!!
My Ub3r 1337 h4x pwn3d joo C4L1f0rn1a !!
Ok, apparently just being a linux system admin makes you a hacker now, wow, guess my girlfriend is an uber hacker, she not only manages a linux based server, but she also teaches linux.
Lame attempt to get hits, this is below this site.
Opps, I turned off the lights at my office, UBERHACKER IS ME