US mayor arrested for 'political hacking'

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday arrested a New Jersey mayor for allegedly hacking into a website of groups seeking his recall, a tech site reported Friday.

 

FBI agents arrested West New York (NJ) Mayor Felix Roque and his son Joseph, 22, for illegally canceling the domain name registration of Recallroque.com.

 

"The story gives a new and troubling definition to the term 'political hack,'" remarked Mashable, which posted the story on its website.

 

Recallroque.com is a website that wanted Roque taken out of office in a recall election earlier this year, Mashable explained.

 

It said visitors to the site would be greeted with an "error-laden" landing page.

 

The FBI's investigation showed the younger Roque was the mastermind, learning from online instructions on how to penetrate email accounts and Recallroque’s host, GoDaddy.com.

 

But the elder Roque went a step further, calling the owner of the site, claiming the site was removed by “high government officials” and that “everyone would pay for getting involved against Mayor Roque.

 

He also allegedly said he had a friend at the Central Intelligence Agency who provided him with such information.

 

Mashable said the site owner was identified only as a government official in Hudson County, N.J.

 

Among the charges against the mayor and his son were gaining unauthorized access to computers in furtherance of causing damage to protected computers; causing damage to protected computers; and conspiracy to commit those crimes.

 

The arrests were announced by the U.S. Attorney for the district of New Jersey, Paul Fishman.

 

“In this case, the elected leader of West New York and his son allegedly hacked into computers to intimidate constituents who were simply using the Internet to exercise their Constitutional rights to criticize the government,” said Fishman. — TJD, GMA News