An ex-employee of ViewSonic has admitted shutting down a key server using another employee's password after being fired

A former network administrator for computer-monitor maker ViewSonic pleaded guilty on Monday to illegally accessing a company server and deleting critical data two weeks after the firm had fired him, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

Andrew Garcia, 38, admitted to a Los Angeles district court that he caused more than $53,000 (£31,700) in damages and clean-up costs when he had shut down a key server and prevented ViewSonic's Taiwan office from accessing the business's data, said Wesley Hsu, an assistant US attorney for the Central District of California.

While ViewSonic had locked his accounts, Garcia had used another employee's account to gain access, Hsu said. "He had, in the course of his employment, obtained other employees' passwords," he said. Garcia's attorney wasn't available for comment.

Garcia administered ViewSonic's network at its California main office. On 14 April, 2002, two weeks after Garcia was terminated, he logged into the system using another employee's passwords and deleted critical files, causing the server to crash, according to the Justice Department. ViewSonic's Taiwan office was unable to access the server for several days, the Justice Department said in the statement.

Garcia is scheduled to be sentence in the case on 12 January, 2004. He faces a maximum sentence of five years and a fine of $250,000.

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