A Florida man will serve 20 days in jail for computer hacking after he exploited a security flaw on the Lee County Elections Office website as “a silly political stunt” for a local candidate.
David Michael Levin of Estero, Fla. pleaded guilty in a Fort Myers courtroom Tuesday to a single misdemeanor count in connection with hacking the Lee County elections website. He’ll serve 20 days in jail followed by two years of probation, a local CBS affiliate reported.
Levin, 31, was initially charged with three counts of felony hacking related to intrusions suffered by the Lee County website as well as the state’s Division of Election upon being arrested in May.
Authorities began investigating Levin after he explained how he breached the Lee County website in a YouTube video uploaded in late January by Dan Sinclair, a candidate at the time in the local election’s supervisor race. In one of the clips, Levin showed how he used a technique known as a SQL injection to gain access to a database containing log-in credentials for the elections website, then used those details to sign-on to the site as incumbent Sharon Harrington. – READ MORE
