A felon and ex-employee of ViewSonic was arrested Thursday for allegedly hacking into its computer system and destroying data, and shutting down a server that was central to the company's foreign operations.
Andy Garcia, 39, was taken into custody on a federal indictment that charges him with unauthorized access to a protected computer and for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
ViewSonic, a privately held company based in Walnut, Calif., makes computer monitors and high-definition televisions. The company has received financing from Intel and is working with the chip giant and Microsoft to introduce a new line of portable video players.
The company's founder, Chief Executive James Chu, is the majority shareholder.
Prosecutors say Garcia accessed ViewSonic's computers in April of 2000, about two weeks after he was fired from the company, and deleted files on one of the servers that he had maintained in his job there.
The missing files made the server inoperable, prosecutors said, which made it impossible for ViewSonic's office in Taiwan to access important data for several days.
Prosecutors said Garcia, who previously had been convicted of two felonies, was also charged with possession of a semiautomatic weapon that was found during a search of his home.
Reply With Quote