The fired technology director of a Houston organ donation company has been accused of hacking into its computer system and deleting records.
A federal indictment alleges that over two days in November 2005, Danielle Duann illegally accessed and damaged LifeGift Organ Donation Center's database.
The agency recovers organs and tissue from the deceased for distribution in 109 Texas counties. Recipients live in a broad swath of the state including Houston, Fort Worth, Lubbock and Amarillo.
After Duann, 50, was fired as the agency's director of information technology, she is accused of accessing the system and issuing commands that wiped out organ donor information and accounting files.
"There was no interruption in clinical operations as a result of the deletion of files, therefore no lives of transplant candidates were in jeopardy," LifeGift spokeswoman Catherine Burch Graham said Tuesday afternoon.
The agency recovered the information from a backup system.
"All of the files were back within several months of the hacking and clinical operations were not affected in any way," Graham said.
Duann is charged under a statute that makes it a federal crime to use technology to impair, or potentially impair, medical examination, diagnosis, treatment and care.
Graham said she could not elaborate on the reason why Duann was fired after a 2 1/2-year tenure.
The intrusion cost the center, which coordinates organs and tissue donations to 200 hospitals in the Southwest, $70,000.
The case is being prosecuted by lawyers from the local U.S. Attorney's Office and the Justice Department's computer crime and intellectual property section.
Duann's face was wet as she was escorted by a U.S. Marshal Tuesday afternoon and she was unable to respond to questions.
If convicted, the former computer chief faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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If donation information was lost, someone could have been killed because of her actions.
Crazy. Sad.
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