Software executive admits hacking

A US software company executive has pleaded guilty to hacking into his former employer's systems.

Gregg Wysocki, of Rochester Hills, Michigan, entered the plea as part of deal with prosecutors in which charges of embezzlement and using a computer to commit a crime were dropped.

Wysocki was charged with stealing sensitive files from his former employer, PC Treasures of Oxford, and using them to land a job with a rival.

PC Treasures provides consumer software bundles to builders and resellers of personal computers.

Wysocki joined PC Treasures as a salesman in 1999 and was its national sales director when he quit without notice on 27 July 2001, the company said.

According to Associated Press reports, Wysocki had improperly tapped into PC Treasures' computer files two weeks earlier and downloaded accounting records, contracts with software suppliers and other records.

The downloading occurred on 12 July, one day before Wysocki attended an interview with Microgistix in Minneapolis, the indictment said. He was later hired by the firm.