Before Lipez, Circuit Judge, Souter, Associate Justice,
*fn1 and Selya, Circuit Judge.
While the defendant, Francis G. Janosko, was incarcerated in Massachusetts at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in late 2006 and early 2007, he was allowed to use a computer system provided to inmates for legal research. Although the equipment was set up to confine access solely to legal materials, Janosko managed to circumvent the limits and, among other havoc, gain entrance for himself and others into the Facility’s personnel files, which contained Social Security numbers of some 1,100 current and prior employees and other personal information about them. The ensuing indictment included charges of causing damage to a protected computer, 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(5)(A)(i), thereby causing loss to one or more persons, id. § 1030(a)(5)(B)(i), and damage affecting a computer system used in the administration of justice, id. § 1030(a)(5)(B)(v). Janosko pleaded guilty under an agreement that left any amount of restitution to be determined by the court, which awarded the county $4,309 for the cost of purchasing elements of the system needed to replace those damaged by Janosko and retained as evidence, and $6,600 for the cost of monitoring credit records of the individuals who suffered the privacy violations and consequent risk of identity theft.
Janosko objected to the order to reimburse for the credit enquiries, arguing that they did not proximately result from the acts of damaging the computer and computer system. Before us, the defendant adds the further objection that the government failed to show that the credit checks were made close enough in time to the destructive conduct to qualify for restitution. We find the objections meritless.*fn2