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Thread: NASA hacker gets 21 months in jail

  1. #1
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    Post NASA hacker gets 21 months in jail

    A prolific computer criminal who admitted breaking into NASA computers was sentenced to 21 months in prison on Monday. Jason Allen Diekman, who went by the nicknames “Shadow Knight” and “Dark Lord,” was also ordered to pay $88,000 in fines and restitution. The 20-year-old Californian admitted to hacking computers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and other NASA computers at Stanford University during November 2000.

    Diekman admitted breaking into hundreds of computers at an impressive list of government and university institutions. On the list: Stanford, Harvard, Cornell University, the California State University at Fullerton and University of California campuses in Los Angeles and San Diego, according to the U.S. Attorney’s California Central District office.

    “The judge (Dean D. Pregerson) told the defendant that what he had done was very disruptive and caused tremendous harm to a number of people. ... In fact, the judge called his conduct ‘insidious,’” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Arif Alikhan, chief of the district’s Computer Crimes Section. “So I think the judge acknowledged the seriousness of the offenses.”

    Even while Diekman was free on bond after pleading guilty in the NASA case, he used his home computer to gain unauthorized access to computers at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Alikhan said.

    He later pleaded guilty to that crime — which included spending 8,000 minutes of conference call time stolen from AT&T. Much of that time was used trying to arrange fraudulent wire transfers through Western Union, Alikhan said. He said Diekman was trying to wire money to himself using stolen credit to fund the transfer.

    Also after the initial guilty plea, Diekman admitted breaking into machines at Bay Area Internet Solutions Inc., an Internet service provider in San Jose. According to Alikhan, Diekman and others then managed to get copies of various company databases that contained account information and passwords.

    The NASA computer systems at Stanford that Diekman broke into were used to develop sensitive satellite flight control software that controlled NASA satellites, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

    Diekman has been held in a federal jail without bond since his arrest in the OSU hacking case on April 18, 2001.

    Source: www.blackcode.com and www.xatrix.org

  2. #2
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    Even while Diekman was free on bond after pleading guilty in the NASA case, he used his home computer to gain unauthorized access to computers at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Alikhan said.
    Some people will never learn. Dont you think with this guys knowledge of computers he could have earned a GOOD living from being a security consultant or similar? No buzz in a 9-5 job though....

  3. #3
    Fastest Thing Alive s0nIc's Avatar
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    what stops these "elite" people from getting a proper job is that little piece of paper called "certificate" or "diploma" or "degree".. its hard.. even if u have the skills.. they still cant hire you coz you dont have the papers to prove that you are "qualified" and "certified"...

  4. #4
    Originally posted by s0nIc
    what stops these "elite" people from getting a proper job is that little piece of paper called "certificate" or "diploma" or "degree".. its hard.. even if u have the skills.. they still cant hire you coz you dont have the papers to prove that you are "qualified" and "certified"...
    exactly

  5. #5
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    sOnIc and Focmaester for the majority of cases you're right. However sometimes a candidate with great skills AND a good , responsible attitude gets the job. I've hired more than one person over another with their cursed diploma and certificates but no brains. I'll do again, because 'tude and skills win out with me.

    peace.
    Trappedagainbyperfectlogic.

  6. #6
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    Seems like we need more managers out there with the views of gold eagle then! Good point sonic, never thought of that one




  7. #7
    Originally posted by gold eagle
    sOnIc and Focmaester for the majority of cases you're right. However sometimes a candidate with great skills AND a good , responsible attitude gets the job. I've hired more than one person over another with their cursed diploma and certificates but no brains. I'll do again, because 'tude and skills win out with me.

    peace.
    At some point I can agree with you, but in my country if I don´t get my diploma´s I´m pretty much ****ed.
    Go to a huge respectable computer security conference and you will see that 90% of the keynote speakers and the ones that are famous for great achievements have their degree´s.

  8. #8
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    I agree, without a degree lots of talented folks cannot get a good job...so the question is why don't they have a degree? While poverty is one issue (to be addressed else where) I beleive that most of the "script kiddies" and what not simply do not have the patience or maturity to complete high education. A degree is not indicative of your knowledge (believe me on this one!!!!!) but rather on your ability to function in a modern corporate enviroment. Put up with the BS in class, companies beleive you will be able to hack it (pun intended) in the real world.

    Anyway, just my 2/5 of a nickle!
    - Jimmy Mac

    Replicants are like any technology, if there not a hazard, its not my problem....

  9. #9
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    Well I know it's true. Most of those at these big respectable conventions and seminars that I go to ARE lettered. And proud of it. So, while it is the case, I'm still trying to give some people a chance who deserve it. Yeah they have the degree - but there are some who have made it in the business world, without a paper to hide behind.

    It is tough without the degree though, Focmaester, and not just in your country. Sadly the "group" have tried to make it a prerequisite to having a degree. I just don't agree that having one is necessarily an indication of intelligence or competence.
    Trappedagainbyperfectlogic.

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