Hungarian gets 2.5 years for hacking, extortion

BALTIMORE (AP) - A Hungarian man has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for hacking into Marriott International's computers and extorting the firm for a job.

Twenty-six-year-old Attila Nemeth pleaded guilty in November to transmitting a malicious code and threatening to reveal confidential information and was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

According to his plea agreement, Nemeth told Marriott in 2010 that he had been accessing Bethesda-based Marriott's computers for months and threatened to reveal proprietary information he found if Marriott did not give him a job. Nemeth was arrested last year after he arrived at Dulles International Airport for what he thought was a job interview.

Prosecutors say the scheme cost Marriott $1 million for costs associated with determining the scope of the intrusion.