College’s ex-Web master faces hacking charges

A disgruntled former Web master for the College of Southern Nevada has been arrested on charges related to hacking into the college's Web site.

The college was forced to shut down the Web site, which suggested that one of its officials was engaged to a goat.

Albert R. Catafamo, 40, was fired in March from the college for "excessive tardiness and poor work performance," according to his arrest report.

College police said Catafamo, who was arrested Friday, chose to take out his revenge by waging war in cyberspace.

For a few hours on the morning of March 31, visitors to the college's Web site were rerouted and led to a bizarre dummy site set up by Catafamo, according to college police.

The site had an image of college Chief Information Officer Shah Ardalan and a goat "in a heart-shaped frame," according to the arrest report.

"The Web page also mentioned that Ardalan and the goat were getting married," the report stated.

The manpower costs to bring the site back up and investigate the incident, and the loss in business to the college while the site was incapacitated totaled about $500,000, college Police Chief Sandy Seda said.

"It literally shut us down completely," Seda said. "It would take you to another site that he doctored up. All the links were fictitious."

Catafamo was arrested on eight felony counts of unlawful use of a computer. Because the loss to the college was estimated at more than $500, the charges carry a sentence of between one and five years in prison.

Catafamo's attorney, Robert Langford, said his client couldn't afford to post the $40,000 bail and remains at the Clark County Detention Center. Langford declined to comment further.

The hacker attack was the second for the college in about a month.

In February, a hacker broke into a server containing information about current and former students, including Social Security numbers. The incident prompted college officials to send about 200,000 letters warning the students.

College police have yet to make an arrest in that case and don't expect to make an arrest because it's difficult to find the culprits in such crimes.

Police said Catafamo is also believed to have hacked into a college server, although he didn't take any private information.

On March 19 and 20, someone made some "unauthorized changes" to the server that were quickly fixed, according to Catafamo's arrest report.

When the Web site crashed more than a week later, one Internet address linked to the crime came from a computer in Catafamo's former office, police said.

The other two Internet addresses came from a computer in Las Vegas and a computer in San Bernardino, Calif., they said.

The computer in California might belong to another former CSN employee who also worked with Catafamo and was fired, Seda said. The college is still investigating that employee.

College police got help from the FBI and a detective with the Metropolitan Police Department's Electronic Crimes Task Force.

Rand Key, the college's vice president for planning and development, said the site was shut down within a few hours and very few people saw the alternate Web site.

"It was just a very embarrassing picture," Key said.

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0440.