'WhiteHat Team' leader charged with hacking government computers

#1

'WhiteHat Team' leader charged with hacking government computers

December 1, 2006

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A Romanian man has been indicted on charges of hacking into more than 150 U.S. government computers, causing disruptions that cost NASA, the Energy Department and the Navy nearly $1.5 million.

The federal indictment charged Victor Faur, 26, of Arad, Romania, with nine counts of computer intrusion and one count of conspiracy. He faces up to 54 years in prison if convicted of all counts, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office, on Thursday.

Faur was being prosecuted by authorities in Romania on separate computer hacking charges, Mrozek said, and will be brought to Los Angeles upon resolution of that case. It was not known whether Faur had retained a lawyer in the United States.

The U.S. government alleged Faur was the leader of a hacking group called "WhiteHat Team," whose main goal was to break into U.S. government computers because they are some of the securest machines in the world.

After hacking into and taking control of the computers, Faur programmed the machines to operate as chat rooms so he could communicate with other WhiteHat members, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hoffstadt said.

During the break-ins, Faur searched for passwords that WhiteHat members could use to gain unauthorized access to other computers, Hoffstadt said.

The compromised computers were used to collect, store and analyze scientific data -- including data from spacecraft in orbit and deep space -- and to evaluate new technologies.

The machines were located at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C.

After the hacking, scientists and engineers had to manually communicate with spacecraft and the computer systems had to be rebuilt.

#2

That's number two..

#3

I know they suck, but in a way I really kinda think hackers are remarkable....

#4

crazy smart bastards with too much time on their hands!

#5

QUOTE(iMNO @ Dec 6 2006, 07:10 PM) crazy smart bastards with too much time on their hands!

Three different types, that count.

1. Reverse Engineers. They like to break things count the pieces, and see what they can make out of them. These usually do mods, add-ins, and reverts of old stuff. Tinkerers of the highest order.

2. Cyber thiefs - seeks monetary, material or informational property assets or licenses through their operations.

3. Information Freedom Architects - IFA believe all information should be free, and challenge to right to legally own "software", "firmware". They despise profiteering, and in this day an age are kinda faltering from their original ideals.
Revolutionaries.

Every decent hacker is a combination of these, and if the ratio is out of wack, they can be pretty dangerous.

#6

what is your primary angle?

#7

that would be out of 11 total - 6:2:4

primarily a tinkerer who makes my own little sumthin that does nuthin.

gonna try to work a nintendo wii-remote into working with a pc game on my tablet pc with a widescreen 14" hd monitor, tonight.

http://www.siliconera.com/index.php/200 ... or-the-pc/

This is the reason I have bought an extra controller to keep with my laptop.

wiili.org

#8

Erm, excuse me Ja, but if it weren't for hackers, computers wouldn't be the way they are today.. :|