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DENVER -- A U.S. Circuit Court Judge sentenced 47-year-old former Colorado Springs resident Douglas James Duchak to two years in federal prison Tuesday for attempting to intentionally corrupt a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) computer.

Duchak worked as a TSA data analyst from 2004-2009.  Between 2004 and August 2009, Duchak was responsible for receiving information from various federal government databases, and preparing that information to be uploaded into TSA’s vetting database. 

On Aug. 12, 2009, Duchak was told that his responsibilities were being transferred to another employee, and that he would be performing other functions in the future.  Duchak then trained the new employee how to upload information from the government databases.  On Oct. 15, 2009, the contractor informed Duchak that his position was being eliminated and his employment at the TSA center would be terminated, effective Oct. 30, 2009. 

During the two week period between the notification of his termination and his last day, Duchak deleted instructional code used to connect date of birth information with arrest warrant database information.

Duchak's replacement caught the coding error four days later, and Duchak was contacted by TSA personnel the same day.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, forensic examination of the electronic evidence showed that the unauthorized code was created and transmitted by Duchak on Oct. 23, 2009, and that he thereby attempted to intentionally cause damage to TSA’s vetting databases.  The defendant caused loss totaling at least $5,000 or more during a one-year period, and if completed, would have caused damage affecting a computer used by the U.S. government in furtherance of national security. 

TSA incurred costs in responding to the offense, conducting damage assessments, and restoring the TSA filed for their screening functions.

“The TSA databases are critical to protecting the traveling public,” U.S. Attorney John Walsh said in a statement.  “Thanks to the hard work of TSA and the FBI, a man was stopped from attempting to corrupt these databases.”

After Duchak serves his two years, he will be on supervised release for three years. He also had to pay $60,587.07 in restitution to TSA. He was indicted on March 9 and plead guilty Oct. 19.