Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News
The FBI Atlanta Cyber Task Force gathered evidence that showed Dobbins was behind the hack. He pleaded guilty to computer intrusion charges in July 2020 and was sentenced to one year in prison in October 2020.
“Given the pandemic, it was especially urgent that we figure out what happened and ensure there was no continuing compromise,” Coffin said. “We also wanted to make a statement that the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are going to investigate and prosecute these types of crimes.”
In this case, like so many cyber cases the FBI investigates, a collaborative relationship with the victim company was key to success.
“In computer intrusion cases, the crime scenes are the systems in these companies’ offices, and we need their assistance to process that in a way it’s admissible in court,” Coffin said. “The FBI works very hard to proactively establish trust with companies, so when these types of things occur, we can quickly figure out what happened, and they can move forward.”