A former senior database administrator for electric provider GEXA Energy in Houston was sentenced today to one year in prison for hacking into his former employer’s computer network, the U.S. Department of Justice said today.

Steven Jinwoo Kim, 40, of Houston pleaded guilty on Nov. 16, 2009, to one count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and recklessly causing damage. Kim was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore in the Southern District of Texas. Kim was also ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to GEXA Energy and to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.

According to court documents, on February 5, 2008, GEXA Energy fired Kim from his job as senior database administrator and took away all of his administrative rights and access to the company’s computer network.

In pleading guilty, Kim admitted that in the early hours of April 30, 2008, he used his home computer to connect to the GEXA Energy computer network and a database that contained information on approximately 150,000 GEXA Energy customers. While connected to the computer network, Kim caused damage to the computer network and the customer database by inputting a number of Oracle database commands.

Kim also copied and saved to his home computer a database file containing personal information on the GEXA Energy customers, including names, billing addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth and drivers license numbers. According to court documents, Kim’s actions caused a $100,000 loss to GEXA Energy.