IT specialist indicted on cyber hacking charges

CHICAGO (AP) - Federal authorities in Chicago say an information technology specialist has been indicted on charges of cyber hacking after he allegedly damaged the servers of a suburban company after he was fired.

In a news release, the U.S. Attorney's office says that in the indictment this week, Edward Soybel is accused of accessing servers of the Lake Forest-based W.W. Grainger Inc. several times last year and damaging the company's automatic inventory management program.

The 34-year-old Soybel of Chicago is charged with 10 counts of intentionally causing damage to protected computers, one count of attempting to cause damage to protected computers and one count of attempting to access a protected computer without authorization. He was arrested Wednesday and pleaded not guilty later that day. The release says he remains in federal custody.