A former Rutland employee, Nathan Howe, was recently sentenced after his actions led to the disruption of a medical facility’s crucial computer network. According to the Department of Justice, Howe's conduct rendered electronic medical records inaccessible, thereby compromising patient care at a non-profit substance use and mental health treatment provider.
U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman meted out a sentence of time served, which amounted to one day in prison, and three years of supervised release, the first year of which Howe is to spend strictly confined to home detention. Despite the government's push to lock up Howe for 21 months, he will also have to cough up $10,565 in restitution. Howe had pleaded guilty back in October 2023 to multiple offenses, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and intentionally causing damage to a protected computer which impeded medical treatment.
The sentencing comes as a follow-up to a scheme where Howe, alongside co-conspirator Patrick Edmonds-Morin, both former employees of the non-profit, executed an ill-conceived plot to interfere with normal operations. Edmonds-Morin, who left the non-profit in October 2020, is still waiting to face his own reckoning, with sentencing slated for May 15, 2024.
In one of their more damaging stunts, Howe and Edmonds-Morin contrived to deploy a program designed specifically to disrupt the non-profit’s system use. Howe, having breached the network in November 2021, transmitted a command to abruptly shutdown the system for the non-profit's Westborough campus. The impact of their actions was immediate and severe, leaving health care providers unable to access vital records and potentially to seriously hamper patient treatment.
The duo's deception extended beyond the cyber realm as they engaged in wire fraud by illicitly acquiring cell phones intended for the non-profit's staff and then flipping them to turn a personal profit. This lucrative scam continued from July 2018 to November 2020, leveraging hundreds of dollars per phone from unsuspecting third parties.
This case was brought to light by the efforts of Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Jodi Cohen, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan O’Shea of the Worcester Branch Office is credited with prosecuting the case.
