NEW YORK – A New York City man was arrested after he allegedly hacked into Century 21’s payroll system and gave some of his former co-workers paid vacations regardless of whether they worked or not.
Héctor Navarro began working as a systems administrator at the department store’s Manhattan location in 2012 and prior to his resignation in October 2019, prosecutors say he stole employee data and created a “superuser” account that allowed access to the company’s private network when he was no longer an employee.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said Wednesday that the 30-year-old from Brooklyn accessed the account from his apartment and tampered with the accounts of other users, including deleting data related to their replacements so that they could not access the accounts. Century 21 networks.
Navarro is also accused of making changes to the company’s vacation payroll policy that would have paid certain employees for vacations even if they did not work on those dates. Century 21 discovered the data breach after Navarro’s replacements were unable to enter the system, prosecutors said.
“If undetected, the alleged manipulation of this former employee could have cost Century 21 more than $ 50,000,” said District Attorney Cy Vance.
Navarro was charged with attempted grand theft in the second degree, computer tampering in the third degree, computer invasion and petty theft, among others, according to the District Attorney’s office. It is unclear if he has a representative who can speak on his behalf.
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