A Florida private investigator was busted for trying to hack into a New York City charity’s computer network in a bizarre attempt to find out whether it was financing Middle East terrorist groups, according to court papers released Monday.
Timothy Sedlak, 42, was busted at his house in Ocoee, Florida on Friday and was charged in Orlando federal court with computer hacking.
The unlicensed private dick made almost 400,000 attempts to hack into the charity’s network using a “brute force” password-cracking tool that’s designed to launch a relentless barrage of possible passwords at an account, prosecutors said.
When questioned by US Secret Service agents, Sedlak said he “conducted research of charitable organizations to try to determine if such organizations are unintentionally financing jihadist groups by sending, to charitable organizations in the Middle East, funds which are then seized by jihadist groups,” his criminal complaint states.
Sedlak said the hacking was “research” that was part of his work as a private investigator that clients paid him to do, but that he couldn’t discuss the work he does for clients, court papers state.