FBI: Smithtown Hacker Bent on Revenge After Losing Promotion

A Smithtown man was arrested Thursday after the FBI said he hacked into his former employer's computer network and caused $90,000 in damages – all because he lost out on a promotion.

The FBI said Michael Meneses, 41, was a software engineer at a local manufacturer of high-voltage power supplies when he resigned in December 2011 after getting upset about not moving up the company chain. 

Sources told Newsday the company was Hauppauge-based Spellman High Voltage. 

According to the FBI, after Meneses resigned he spent three weeks hacking into the company's network, stealing security credentials of current employees, and creating a program would capture their usernames and passwords. Meneses then used that information to create mayhem in ways that included using a worker's email address to send warning messages too applicants for his former job as well as altering the company's business calendar by a month. 

“Bent on revenge, the defendant exploited his access and his technical know-how to sabotage his former employer," FBI Assistant Director in Charge Venizelos said in a statement. 

Mendes, who was set to be arraigned in the federal court in Central Islip Thursday, faces prison time and up to $250,000 in fines, the FBI said.