A 45-year-old man admitted he trespassed at two companies in New Jersey, hacked into their computers and stole sensitive information, federal authorities said.
Ankur Agarwal, 45, of Montville, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of obtaining information from computers and a count of aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Agarwal, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 28, also agreed to surrender computers, storage devices, and other equipment. He could receive a maximum of 12 years in federal prison.
Though federal authorities didn’t name the companies that were hacked, court document said one was headquartered in New York with offices in New Jersey. The other has its headquarters in Texas with offices in New Jersey. Both developed “emerging technologies,” court papers said.
Agarwal entered the offices of one company in February 2017 and illegally installed hardware key-logger devices on the company’s computers. The key-logger devices secretly recorded the keystrokes of the company’s employees and provided Agarwal with their usernames and passwords, officials said.
He then secretly installed his personal computer and a hard drive onto the company’s computer network using the fraudulently obtained credentials. Agarwal hacked the company’s computer network and stole its “emerging technology" data, according to prosecutors.
That information allowed Agarwal to remotely access company information. Among the information he swiped, were 7,000 emails from the company’s IT team, 8,000 email files from an employee and a human resources file containing information about more than 50 of the company’s senior managers, according to charging documents.
Argwal followed the same plan at the other company, except he got his hands on a employee’s access card to enter the business, court documents said. After he hacked into the company’s computer network, he made himself an access card that had someone else’s name on it.
Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman.
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