Resentencing Due for Man Who Set Off Phishing Attack on LA County Court Computers

A man whose federal prison sentence for hacking into the Los Angeles Superior Court computer system and using it to send millions of malicious phishing emails was overturned on appeal is set to be resentenced Monday. The county Court operates a courthouse in Pasadena at 300 E. Walnut Street.

Oriyomi Aloba, 36, of Katy, Texas, was found guilty three years ago in Los Angeles of a series of computer-related offenses, including wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, based on the July 2017 phishing attack.

In March, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Aloba’s conviction but vacated his 12-year prison sentence due to a procedural error.

During the computer attack, one court employee’s email account was compromised and used to send an email to co-workers purporting to be from the file hosting service Dropbox. In fact, it was a phishing email that contained a link to a phishing website that asked for the users’ Superior Court email addresses and passwords.

Thousands of court employees received the Dropbox email and hundreds disclosed their email credentials to the attacker. Multiple employees’ emails were then used by the attacker to send out millions of phishing emails.

As a result of the attack, the court suffered monetary losses, including more than $45,000 in employee time paid to respond to the attack that would have otherwise been spent on ordinary work activities. Additionally, there were more than $15,000 in combined actual and intended losses to credit card victims, according to court documents.