A University employee was charged with four counts of computer trespassing after accessing a Winder company’s files.

Eric Krumm, former system administrator specialist with the Office of Information Technology Outreach Service at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, used a University network to hack files owned by Veit-Americas, a garment industry technology company.

“The initial complaint came as a child pornography case from a private citizen not associated with the office who had knowledge that child pornography was located on a computer at Veit-Americas,” said John Whitaker, special agent-in-charge for the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.

The GBI’s high technology crime unit, which has original jurisdiction over Internet child pornography cases, approached the University EITS security personnel. The GBI looked at the networks Krumm had access to as an employee.

“There are a lot of things you can tell by log files on computers,” Whitaker said. “It was glaringly obvious that he illegally accessed the computers at Veit-Americas.”

Whitaker couldn’t explain the details of what Krumm accessed, but Krumm had worked with the company previously and had access to proprietary information.

Tom Jackson, vice president for public affairs, said Krumm was fired on June 21 for inappropriately using a University computer.

“You train people and hope people are honest, but when you have a trusted employee violate your trust, you are a victim,” he said.

He was booked at the Athens-Clarke County Jail and released July 17 with a $10,000 bond.

“The child pornography charges are still under active investigation,” Whitaker said. “We will be making a forensic analysis of the computers to search for child pornography.”

Krumm’s next court appearance is Aug. 12.