9News.com
Colorado

March 10, 2010

DENVER - 9Wants to Know has learned federal prosecutors have charged a former Transportation Security Administration employee with attempting to sabotage terror watch list computers.
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Douglas Duchak, 46, of Colorado Springs, faces two charges of attempting to damage protected TSA computers.

The suspect allegedly tried to send a virus into the computer system's servers, after learning he would be terminated, 9Wants to Know confirms.

The computer system includes the government's no-fly list.

Duchak worked at the TSA's Colorado Springs Operation Center where the government loads computers with data received from the federal government's Terrorist Screening Database and the U.S. Marshal's Service Warrant Information Network, according to a U.S. Attorney's office spokesman.

Duchak worked at the Colorado Springs Operations Center from August 2004 to Oct. 23, 2009 as a data analyst.

Federal prosecutors say Duchak was not successful in his attempt to introduce a virus into the computer system, but if he had been successful it "would have caused damage affecting a computer used by the United States government in furtherance of national security," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"Prosecution of the defendant is critical to protecting the integrity of the government's security databases," said U.S. Attorney David M. Gaouette.

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