A man has been sentenced to more than six years in prison after hacking into a state database to fake his death, and get out of paying child support.
Jesse Kipf from Kentucky, in the US, was sentenced to 81 months for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The 39-year-old admitted to accessing the Hawaii Death Registry System in January last year and creating a “case” for his own death.
Kipf then completed a State of Hawaii Death Certificate Worksheet, assigned himself as the medical certifier for the case and certified his death, using the digital signature of the doctor.
It meant he was successfully registered as a deceased person in many government databases.
Kipf admitted that he did it to avoid his outstanding child support obligations of more than $100,000.
The hacker also accessed other death registry systems and companies in unrelated attacks that he carried out using the stolen log in details of real physicians and workers.
He was found to be offering to sell access to the systems and selling stolen databases containing private information like Social Security Numbers to other cyber criminals on the darknet.
The darknet is a portion of the internet only accessible through specialist software that hides a browser’s identity. There are many darknet marketplaces where cyber criminals sell stolen data or access to compromised IT systems.
Kipf sold to international buyers, including individuals from Algeria, Russia and Ukraine, the court was reportedly told.
“This scheme was a cynical and destructive effort, based in part on the inexcusable goal of avoiding his child support obligations,” said Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Under federal law, Kipf must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence and will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years.
The damage to governmental and corporate computer systems and his failure to pay his child support obligations amounted to a total of $195,758.65.