Wardrivers charged with hacking Lowe's and stealing credit card details
Two men repeatedly hacked into the Lowe's home improvement chain's national computer system, getting access to credit card and other information, the federal government says.
The Waterford men sat in a car in the parking lot of a Lowe's store in Southfield and used a wireless network to enter the computer system from Oct. 25 through Friday, prosecutors say.
The purpose of the hacking is unclear, the government says.
Paul Timmins, 22, and Adam Botbyl, 20, may have been engaged in "wardriving," or cruising around with a specially equipped laptop and an antenna searching for unsecured wireless networks hooked to the Internet.
The men are charged with causing damage to a protected computer system, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The men appeared Monday before U.S. District Court Magistrate Virginia Morgan.
Timmins said he is a $38,000-a-year computer network and security specialist for a Southfield software company. Botbyl said he is a student at ITT Technical Institute in Troy. Morgan released them on $10,000 unsecured bonds.
