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T-Moblile Cracker Pleads Guilty

Posted by samzenpus on from the go-directly-to-jail dept.

hackajar writes "The Register is reporting Nicholas Lee Jacobsen plead guilty to cracking into T-Mobile's phones. He was picked up in mid October of last year in the "Operation Firewall" sweep by the FBI. He faces "maximum five years' prison and a $250,000 fine" according to the site."

10 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Summary is misleading... by FrYGuY101 · · Score: 5, Informative
    He cracked into the network, not just phones... from TFA:
    Nicholas Lee Jacobsen accessed US Secret Service email, obtained customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and downloaded candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities, as we reported in January.
    --
    "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."

    - Seneca
    1. Re:Summary is misleading... by blowdart · · Score: 5, Funny

      he had no noble intensions in mind what so ever

      Whereas if he'd managed to use the intrustion to delete every single custom ringtone off every connected mobile he would have been sainted. :)

  2. Few thoughts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    As I recall, he wasn't picked up in the Operation Firewall sweep (although he would have been), instead, he turned himself in several days before the arrests.

    Secondly, the maximum five year/$250,000 fine thing is standard for a single felony. In all likelyhood he will get MUCH less, especially because he cooperated and plead guilty.

  3. Secret Service! by mboverload · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Nicholas Lee Jacobsen accessed US Secret Service email...

    Why the hell are the secret service sending unencrypted emails (!!!) other a PUBLIC, wireless phone system. I don't like our president or anything, but he deserves more than some hack jobs practically advertising themselves to the world.

    1. Re:Secret Service! by digitalchinky · · Score: 5, Informative

      A great deal of inter-organisation banter is considered 'unclassified' so it makes sense to use public systems that are already in place - saves money all round. Also workers will send personal stuff like banking and email to friends and family, it's got to leave the 'secret service' building somewhere.

      I seriously doubt he got anything hard core. Air Gap - (and no, I did not say WiFi gap)

  4. Punish him constructively by [cx] · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Make him work unpaid with only room and board as a slave for T-Mobile as a security technician.

    Oh yeah..slavery...

    I guess it's not such a good idea, but without the bad past of slavery, but incarceration is just a waste of money, when he could be using his "talent" positively. By forcing them to atone for their crimes perhaps they will learn the error of their ways by dealing with (in this case) people trying to crack the same security network he is now trying to secure.

    Monitor him, which will probably cost less than the prison fees. He is not a danger to society, he is just simply someone who overstepped their legal boundary. I believe prison should be for violent criminals. Not that he will go to a real tough prison.

    But if he screws up in the program outside of prison as rehabilitation, then he would be sent to a maximum security prison to serve the sentence to the end.

    [cx]

  5. 'Honest, Judge... by Sensible+Clod · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought I was accessing my WiFi AP. Its SSID was T-Moblile!"

    --

    The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
  6. Throw the book at him... by ttys00 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... and hope nobody realises that if this guy can read secret service emails by himself, foreign government intelligence agencies (ie. whatever the KGB is called these days) with more resources and more staff must be finding it laughably easy.

  7. Re:T-Moblile by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's "vendetta"

    HTH
    The Society For Correct Spelling.

  8. A mere pittance by QCompson · · Score: 5, Funny

    $250,000? That's nothing! At least he wasn't caught sharing four or five songs...