HAVERHILL, MASS. (WHDH) - An Ayer man agreed to plead guilty Wednesday to charges stemming from a June 2023 cyberattack targeting the computer network of his former employer, Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School.
Conor LaHiff, 30, was charged with one count of unauthorized damage to protected computers and will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.
LaHiff was employed as a desktop and network manager at Whittier Tech until he was terminated in June 2023. After he was fired, LaHiff allegedly used his administrative privileges to deactivate and delete thousands of Apple IDs from the school’s Apple School Manager account – software used to manage student, faculty and staff information technology resources. LaHiff also allegedly deactivated more than 1,400 other Apple accounts and other IT administrative accounts and disabled the school’s private branch phone system, which left the school’s phone service unavailable for approximately 24 hours.
The charge of unauthorized damage to protected computers provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss.
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