Former TSA analyst charged with computer tampering

From GoodGearGuide.com:

A U.S. Transport Security Administration analyst has been indicted with tampering with databases used by the TSA to identify possible terrorists who may be trying to fly in the U.S.

Douglas James Duchak, 46, was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday with two counts of damaging protected computers. According to a federal indictment, Duchak tried to compromise computers at the TSA’s Colorado Springs Operations Center (CSOC) on Oct. 22, 2009, seven days after he’d being given two weeks notice that he was being dismissed. He was also charged with tampering with a TSA server that contained data from the U.S. Marshal’s Service Warrant Information Network.

He “knowingly transmitted code into the CSOC server that contained the Terrorist Screening Database, and thereby attempted intentionally to cause damage to the CSOC computer and database,” prosecutors said Wednesday in a press release.

Duchak, who had been with the TSA for about five years at the time, was responsible for keeping TSA servers up-to-date with information received from the terrorist screening database and the United States Marshal’s Service Warrant Information Network.

If convicted, Duchak faces 10 years in prison.

He was expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Denver Wednesday.