A US man has been sentenced to a year in prison for hacking into his former employer's computer system and causing the mail server to send out spam messages.

Steven John Barnes, 37, will have to pay more than $54,000 to his former company, Blue Falcon Networks. The company, which streamed media over the internet and is now known as Akimbo Systems, was blocked by most spam software after Barnes installed his spam surprise.

Barnes worked as information technology manager from September 2002 until he was fired in April 2003. Five months later, he hacked into Blue Falcon's computer system over the course of two days and caused the mail server to send out spam messages, including pornography and viruses. Other companies blacklisted Blue Falcon's e-mails as spam, preventing the firm's employees from communicating with customers.

He also deleted the company's Microsoft Exchange email database and core boot files, preventing the server from booting up.

Barnes admitted the charge of unauthorised access into a protected computer, recklessly causing damage. X

Check Out
SFGate