Apr 5, 2011 14:52 GMT  ·  By

A computer network engineer who worked for Gucci America has been indicted after hacking into his former employer's computer systems and damaging data.

According to prosecutors, while working at Gucci, Sam Chihlung Yin, 34, of Jersey City, created a VPN USB token in the name of a fictional employee.

After being fired in May 2010, Yin contacted the company's IT department posing as that employee and asked for his token to be activated.

In the months that followed Yin used his knowledge to repeatedly caused damage to Gucci's operations by disabling servers, locking documents and deleting emails.

In one instance, on November 12, 2010, during the course of two hours, Yin deleted several virtual servers, shut down a storage area and wiped clean an entire disk from the company's email server.

These actions have resulted in severe disruptions to daily activities, not only for Gucci's staff at the company's Manhattan headquarters, but also store managers across the country who couldn't access their emails.

The damages sustained by Gucci as a result of loss productivity, attack mitigation and data restoration is estimated at $200,000.

Yin has been indicted on 50 counts of computer tampering, identity theft, falsifying business records, computer trespass, criminal possession of computer related material, unlawful duplication of computer related material and unauthorized use of a computer.

"Computer hacking is not a game. It is a serious threat to corporate security that can have a devastating effect on personal privacy, jobs, and the ability of a business to function at all. This Office's Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau is committed to preventing and prosecuting crimes such as the one charged in today's indictment," said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.