N.J. Hacker’s 94-Month Identity Theft Sentence Upheld on Appeal

A New Jersey man who used a sophisticated computer hacking scheme to steal data from two companies and then create an access badge for himself lost a bid to overturn a prison sentence of nearly eight years, with a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Thursday.

Ankur Agarwal pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after he repeatedly used his security credentials as a contract network engineer to access the internal networks of companies and monitor their activities. He also installed hardware key-logger devices on the company’s ...