Idaho man charged with hacking into computers in Georgia

ATLANTA (AP) — An Idaho man faces federal charges after authorities say he hacked into the computers of a Georgia city and Atlanta area medical clinics.

Robert Purbeck — who used online aliases Lifelock and Studmaster — was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Georgia, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta. He’s charged with computer fraud and abuse, access device fraud and wire fraud.

Purbeck, who’s 41 and lives in Meridian, Idaho, was arrested and appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Boise, the release says. No lawyer for Purbeck who might be able to comment on the charges was listed in online court records.

Between June 2017 and April 2018, Purbeck is accused of buying the usernames and passwords to computer servers belonging to multiple Georgia victims and then using that information to access their computer to steal personal information.

Federal prosecutors say Purbeck stole: medical records and other documents containing the names, addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers of more than 43,000 people from a medical clinic in Griffin, Georgia; the personal information of more than 7,000 people from a medical practice in Locust Grove, Georgia; and police reports and other documents with personal information of more than 14,000 people from the city of Newnan, Georgia.

He’s also accused of hacking into a Florida orthodontist’s computers in June 2018 and taking medical records for more than 1,800 people, the release says. He’s then accused of threatening to sell the stolen patient information, as well as the personal information of the orthodontist’s child, unless the orthodontist paid a ransom in bitcoins, the release says.