On Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010, at 5:37 p.m., the Lee County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a threatening phone message. The caller was the first of several identical complaints received that evening. Each of the audio messages stated, “It is a good day to die; but the day is not yet over.” The end of the message directed the recipient to contact East Lee County High School if they had any questions.

Due to the nature of the incidents, a detective assigned to the Youth Services Section of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office was immediately assigned to continue the investigation. Lee County School District administrators were contacted and it was discovered their “ParentLink” server had been compromised. The same phone message was sent to more than 1,800 parents and students of the high school before it was successfully interrupted by School District technical support.

As the investigation continued, a suspect was identified and a search warrant obtained. In the early evening of Monday, February 22, 2010, detectives executed the search warrant at 817 Casper Yost Street East, Lehigh Acres. Pedro Diaz, age 16, was questioned and charged in connection with the incident. The investigation reveals Diaz successfully obtained user names and passwords of administrators, teachers and students while attending school. From his home, he was able to access the Pinacle server of the school district. This allowed him to breach the “ParentLink” server and begin sending the messages. He attempted to stop the messages about halfway through, but was unsuccessful. Diaz also changed some of his grades and those of some other students. Additionally, he modified the “ParentLink” accounts of three school administrators.

Arrest:

Pedro Diaz (d-o-b 10/20/93) of 817 Casper Yost Street, Lehigh Acres – charged with 2 counts of an offense against intellectual property/modify without authority computer support document, {F.S. 815.04 (1)} each a third degree felony and 3 counts of an offense against computer users/computer crime/interrupt or impair a governmental operation or public communication, {815.06 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(3)} each a second degree felony.

The accused was transported to the Juvenile Assessment Center for processing. Due to the felony charges an arrest photo is public record and available (attached).

Source: Lee County Sheriff’s Department