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    Minnesota Wi-Fi hacker gets 18 years in prison for terrorizing neighbors

    By Jeff Hughes | Digital Trends – Tue, Jul 12, 2011
    Minnesota hacker Barry Ardolf was sentenced to an 18-year term in a federal prison this Tuesday. Ardolf had terrorized a neighboring family for two years through a carefully planned campaign involving a hijacked Wi-Fi network to harass, frame and embarrass the next-door neighbors in every facet of their lives.

    Ardolf’s obsessive passive-aggression was apparently ignited in late 2008 when his neighbors, Matt and Bethany Kostolnik, filed a police report against him. The Kostolniks had a 4-year old son who wandered over to their next-door-neighbors property shortly after moving into the Minnesota suburb of Blaine. Ardolf, 46 and a father of two, had reportedly picked the boy up carried him back to the couple and then kissed the child on the lips. Ardolf was offended when the cops were called and vowed his revenge like every good villain.

    The man, a Medtronic computer technician, downloaded a Wi-Fi hacking program to tear into his neighbors WEP encryption. Ardolf created a fake Myspace page as well as several fake emails for Matt Kostolnik. The hacker then posted child porn on the Myspace page and emailed the same child porn to co-workers at Kostolnik’s law office.

    To top it all off, the Blaine hacker sent death threats to Vice President Joe Biden and other politicians from Kostolnik’s Yahoo account. This granted Kostolnik a visit from the secret service who had traced the emails back to his IP address. One of the emails told Biden, “I swear to God I’m going to kill you!”

    Ardolf’s mischief was detected when a frustrated Kostolnik told bosses he had no clue as to what was going on. The law office hired a firm to poke around the Wi-Fi network and install a packet sniffer to figure it all out. Eventually Ardolf’s name and Comcast account were found which gave the FBI a reason to obtain a search warrant for Ardolf’s house. They found massive evidence that led to the Blaine hacker being slapped with charges for identity theft, making threats against Biden, possession of child pornography as well as distribution of kiddie-porn.

    The FBI also found evidence that Ardolf had staged a similar attack against in a family in Brooklyn Park for parking their cars in front of his house. Ardolf’s charges will tag him with lifetime-sex-offender registration requirements and after his release he’ll be supervised for 20 years. According to the Pioneer Press, he’ll also be restricted when working with computers by his parole officers.

     

    5,201 comments

    • Andy
      Andy  •  10 mths ago
      Is 18 years OVERKILL? Well, perhaps if YOU were the victim you'd want less?? I think not. You'd wanna see him hang by his N**TS for doing to you what he did to that family!!!! Seems to me that merely for suggesting you'd want to kill a vice-president you should receive at least that much not taking into account the other charges!
      • Joker
        Joker 10 mths ago
        I am sure that 18 years will make him a repentant man. It would not surprise me if he hunts down the family and kills the little boy. The family should have been better than calling the cops because THEIR KID got returned. Must have been repukes.
      • KevinC
        KevinC 10 mths ago
        John, you are a coward. Stating that a pol "needs to die" and threatening to carry out the act of killing are FAR different things. Go ahead if you have the sack and make the statement. I don't like Biden but I'd be happy to see you candy ass in jail.
      • Zaphod
        Zaphod 10 mths ago
        Clearly there are idiots everywhere. JohnL is one of them.
    • Frank
      Frank  •  10 mths ago
      Oh so only parents are aloud to kiss their kids on the lips? Incest is worse than a stranger doing it.
    • bootemout
      bootemout  •  10 mths ago
      If I saw a 46 yr old man kiss my 4 yr old son on the lips, I'd be the one on trial.
      • A Yahoo! User 10 mths ago
        You got that, Bootemout. I'd be on him like a mother bear protecting her cub. The coroner would rule his death "suicide by stupidity." ;-)
      • 1since40
        1since40 10 mths ago
        Pretty stupid comments - he is a father of two, himself. It was a four year-old. Was it unusual? Yeah. Worth calling the police over? No.
      • KevinC
        KevinC 10 mths ago
        I dunno, seems like an unwanted sexual advance to me....
    • A Yahoo! User  •  10 mths ago
      I think, in prison, he will understand what it is like to be kissed on the lips by a stranger.
      • Me
        Me 10 mths ago
        His lips will be places.
      • Brat
        Brat 10 mths ago
        Amongst other places
      • kevin p
        kevin p 10 mths ago
        Thats awesome,lololol
    • Paul
      Paul  •  10 mths ago
      A nice way to set an example for hackers everywhere. Cyber-stalking IS still stalking.......
      • JohnL
        JohnL 10 mths ago
        Yeah whats he gonna do, hack my computer and use it too rape me? Get real, a stalker must have a means of carrying out his threats. If the only contact is electronically, then I have doubts as to how any physical harm is goin to come to someone who reads this note if I hacked your puter and put it on there? Get real. You are not going to follow someone to their home, enter it, and do them physical harm on the computer, unless there is some kinda new physical reality that Im not aware of.
      • Mike O
        Mike O 10 mths ago
        Hey JohnL, I bet the visit from the secret service felt pretty real and I'm sure there was at least the possibility of a "physical reality" as you put it. He was playing puppet master and did mean harm, physically, emotionally and financially.
      • K
        K 10 mths ago
        Pretty stupid statement John. Stalking doesn't require physical harm. If I follow you for a while and you find it unwelcome, yet I don't stop - it's callled "stalking." PERIOD. Your opinions on whether or not it's right is irrelevant.
    • StephenJ
      StephenJ  •  10 mths ago
      No, he knew what he was doing, it wasn't a crime of passion, something done on the spur of the moment. it was a calculated crime, He's made two families lives, at least that we know of, a misery for what he did he got off light
      • SouthEast Va.
        SouthEast Va. 10 mths ago
        There still will be repercussions for the families as employers (who know) will not want a person that may cause them any heartache even if they are victims. Friends disappear as they do not wish to even possibly get caught up with any psycho. They find themselves generally ostracized from the public.
      • DK
        DK 10 mths ago
        And his family as well.
      • shawn
        shawn 10 mths ago
        the best part is he has to serve 80% of those 18 yrs and not a day less because of the feds
    • Leah
      Leah  •  10 mths ago
      He acquired and sent out child porn and you question the 18 years?
    • SantaFeJack
      SantaFeJack  •  10 mths ago
      This is one sick and dangerous dude...he got what the judge thought he deserved.
    • Mr
      Mr  •  10 mths ago
      He deserved a lot more... he's 46, not 16, he needs to grow up, and kissing a strangers kid on the lips and having child porn... he should get a hell of a lot more time...
    • Ramblin Rose
      Ramblin Rose  •  10 mths ago
      I am in awe how anyone can do all this. I know only how to find the news sites and read and send e mails.
    • Rough and tough
      Rough and tough  •  10 mths ago
      I wish they'd arrest the hackers in Nebraska that have been terrorizing their neighbors for years.
    • Teamjonas
      Teamjonas  •  10 mths ago
      Its not 18 years for hacking, its 18 years for distributing kiddy porn, ID theaft and threatening to kill the VP of the US.
    • perfectlybaked
      perfectlybaked  •  10 mths ago
      One awesome part about this story is that there are always people who are smarter than the nerds... I've never heard of a "packet sniffer."
    • Michael
      Michael  •  10 mths ago
      The man is a sex offender, made threats against the vice president, and tried to ruin a family's life. 18 years isn't enough, he should serve the entire sentence-the man is a menace.
    • ssssss g
      ssssss g  •  10 mths ago
      talk about the neighbor from hell,,,wish they would arrest some of my neighbors...
    • sickofcreeps
      sickofcreeps  •  10 mths ago
      To be fair, the writer did NOT say HE thought 18 years was too much; he asked for opinions as to what OTHERS thought. And no, I do not think it is too much, given the nature of the trauma he put the families through AND the nature of his other criminal acts (distributing child porn, threatening the life of the VP, etc.). There is SO much "cyber crime", and it is devastating to the victims both in wasted time and expense, and I believe there should be severe punishments for these kinds of cowardly predators.
    • Room
      Room  •  10 mths ago
      "The man may have been a nightmare to live next to, but is the 18 years in prison a bit overkill?"

      So much for being an unbiased reporter of news. This should be labeled "editorial", not news.

      As to is the sentence too harsh? The victim would have gotten that much and his family been ruined had they not found the true perpetrator. This information Ardolf put on the Internet to smear Kostolnik will stay forever, to be found in future background checks and stumbled on by people everywhere. It isn't like you can pull a Rosanna Danna Danna and say "Oops, I'm sorry." These hackers destroy lives and as such, should be punished the same as murders.

      Ardolf made the death threats against the Vice President, posted child porn, destroyed reputations, intercepted electronic communications, and as such, deserves anything he gets.
    • ground hog
      ground hog  •  10 mths ago
      a real hacher knows how to cover his tracks,if you think you know how,guess what-YOU DONT
    • jeff
      jeff  •  10 mths ago
      u people are all out of ur freking mind---if u have minds---he doesn't deserve 18 years for hacking----and at most to have supervised probation for the child porn
    • Joshua
      Joshua  •  10 mths ago
      Jeff Hughes, you are a %$%### No, it is NOT excessive. The child porn stuff alone should have got him 18 years. Idiot. You need to find a new line of work, idiot.
     Post a comment
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