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6-Month Sentence for NASA Cracker

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the be-careful-who-you-crack dept.

lunartik noted an AP story running on a 6-month sentence given to Gregory Aaron Herns for cracking into the computer system at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. 'Herns told federal agents he was looking for computer space to store movies he'd downloaded. It took hours for technicians to find the problem, fix it and patch the system's security holes.'"

2 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hacking Vs Cracking by MikeyVB · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh boy, this one again!

    I disagree.

    Cracking == Breaking or "cracking" any type of computer security, weather it be software or a server.

    Hacking == Programing.

  2. Re:Hacking Vs Cracking by Flaming_cows · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, that's not it at all. According to 'purists', hacking is a term used to denote someone who programs (e.g. hacking code is programming) whereas cracking is breaking into a system with malicious intent, although the term hacker has been demonized by the media and government (e.g. Kevin Mitnick's story).