New Jersey Keylogger Hacker Jailed

A New Jersey man who physically installed keyloggers onto the computer networks of his rivals to steal trade secrets has been sent to prison for nearly eight years. 

Ankur Agarwal, of Montville, pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining information from computers and one count of aggravated identity theft in federal court in Newark back in October 2019. The 45-year-old admitted stealing 15,000 files relating to emerging technology from two different companies. 

According to court documents, Agarwal trespassed on the New Jersey premises of a Texas-based tech company in February 2017. The cyber-criminal then illegally installed hardware keylogger devices on the company's computers to capture the keystrokes of its employees.

From the data provided by the keyloggers, Agarwal was able to extract the usernames and passwords of the employees and gain access to the company's computer system. 

Once inside the company's network, Agarwal installed his personal computer and a hard drive. Prosecutors said that Agarwal then stole data relating to the development of an emerging technology from the company's computers.

To exfiltrate the data, Agarwal used a computer code that he had made specifically for that purpose. He executed the exfil script against multiple computers and on more than one occasion. 

Agarwal confessed to hacking into a second company based in New York. He was able to enter the company's premises in New Jersey after fraudulently creating an access card for himself.

The Justice Department said: “This fraudulently obtained access badge, bearing another individual’s name, allowed Agarwal to p ..

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