Wisconsin man charged with hacking sports betting accounts

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man has been charged in a plot to hack and steal from thousands of sports betting accounts, court documents show.

Joseph Garrison, 18, and others allegedly stole roughly $600,000 from 1,600 accounts on an unnamed sports betting site. Garrison surrendered to authorities in New York on Thursday and faces six charges including unauthorized access to computers and wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced.

If convicted of all the charges against him, Garrison could be sentenced to up to 57 years in prison.

Prosecutors alleged that Garrison and others used credential stuffing attacks, which entail using stolen usernames and passwords from previous data breaches, to access accounts on other platforms. According to the criminal complaint against Garrison, hackers accessed roughly 60,000 accounts on the sports betting website.

About five months before the sports betting website was hacked, Garrison told investigators from the Madison Police Department that he had taken part in previous credential stuffing attacks, according to the complaint.

The federal defender representing Garrison declined to comment on the case.

Garrison was released on bond Thursday and prohibited from using internet devices other than his phone and computer, which the court will monitor.