It was information superhighway robbery, and now a teen hacker on Staten Island has been taken offline by cops for causing at least $500,000 worth of damage to America Online, authorities said.
The 17-year-old special-ed student broke into databases in Manhattan and India, stealing personal customer and employee information and installing viruses, authorities said yesterday.
Mike Nieves allegedly attacked AOL’s main computers, located at 75 Rockefeller Plaza, and others in New Delhi in retaliation for being booted by the service long ago.
He infected its network with viruses and was able to get employee and customer information, cops said.
“I hacked into AOL because they took away my accounts and wouldn’t give them back,” Nieves allegedly told investigators with the company and the NYPD’s Computer Crime squad.
It appeared Nieves hadn’t used any of the customer info for his own financial gain.
Nieves’ mother said her son has a been a special-ed student his entire life because of “behavioral problems” – mostly fights.
“He sleeps most of the day and uses the computer at night,” said Luz Nieves, 58, a home health aide. “I’ve been going crazy since this all happened.”
A spokesperson for AOL had no comment on the ongoing investigation.
Mike Nieves was charged Monday with computer tampering, computer trespassing, criminal possession of computer-related materials, and criminal mischief, all felonies, and misdemeanor unauthorized use of a computer, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
A source close to the case said AOL has been battling Nieves, “an aggressive hacker,” for years, and the half-million dollar only represented only the cost of man-hours spent fixing the cyber damage done.
“There is a long history with this kid,” said the insider, who noted Nieves may have been working with a group of hackers.
“You can only play cat and mouse for so long, and then you want to catch somebody.”
Nieves is being held in lieu of $4,000 cash bail.
Nieves was tracked down when the original accounts he used to infiltrate the company led to his home in Shore Acres.