Employee Tried to Wipe Out School District's Computers, Cops Say

A 28-year-old Sarasota man stands accused of launching an October attack on the Sarasota County School District’s computer network.

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office arrested district employee Michael Levanti early Tuesday morning. They say he is responsible for introducing unauthorized software onto the district’s central hub server on Oct. 21. That software wreaked havoc on the system.

“Noting the progressive damage created by this software update, school personnel began to shut down the servers to prevent a catastrophic event which could wipe out and damage the servers used in the entire Sarasota County School System,” a probable cause affidavit in the arrest stated.

The district has more than 350 serves and 50,000 users, the reported noted.

The complexity of the computer network prompted the district to bring in a third-party company that specializes in digital forensics to assist.

The Sylint Group was tasked with finding out how the software was introduced and helping trace its source. That investigation pointed to an internal source for the breach, the affidavit said. The contractor was also able to eventually help detectives trace the source of the breach to Levanti.

Levanti was arrested at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday. He was charged with two second-degree felony counts of crimes against computer systems.

Levanti was being held at the Sarasota County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bond.

Photo Credit: Michael Levanti/Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office