Man Sentenced in NJ Pharma Hacking Case

A Georgia man has been sentenced in New Jersey to nearly 3 1/2 years in prison for sabotaging the computer network of his former employer.

Federal prosecutors say 37-year-old Jason Cornish of Smyrna had admitted hacking into the computer network of Shionogi Inc., the subsidiary of a Japanese pharmaceutical company. The company has operations in New Jersey and Georgia.

The February 2011 attack effectively froze company operations for days and caused about $800,000 in losses.

Cornish resigned in September 2010 from Shionogi, where he was an information technology employee. Prosecutors say he sought revenge for company layoffs that affected a close friend.

Cornish was also ordered Friday in federal court in Newark to make restitution -- and barred from working in a job with access to a computer network infrastructure.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)