A former IT employee at Rochester, N.Y.-based Trillium Health pleaded guilty April 5 to computer fraud after stealing personal photos and information from several co-workers, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports.
Ameer Elashmawy worked at Trillium as an information systems security support coordinator. In October, he was charged with identity theft and unauthorized access of a protected computer, which he allegedly used to access personal information of several co-workers and steal thousands of photos and videos of them.
"In his position, [Mr.] Elashmawy had administrative access to all employee network accounts while they used their computers at work," according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office. "Between April 2019 and January 2020, [Mr. Elashmawy] used his administrative access rights to search employees' email and social media accounts without their knowledge or permission."
Officials said they found thousands of personal photos of Trillium employees on Mr. Elashmawy's computer as well as photos of credit cards, driver's licenses and Social Security cards, according to the report.
The health system has spent more than $150,000 to hire a cybersecurity firm and investigate the incident, and employees whose information was stolen were also given free credit monitoring and computer identification protection.
Mr. Elashmawy is scheduled for sentencing July 12 and could face 18 to 24 months in prison.