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Another NASA Hacker Indicted
eldavojohn writes "Earlier this year, UK citizen & hacker of NASA Gary KcKinnon was extradited to the United States (also interviewed twice). Now, another hacker has been indicted for hacking more than 150 U.S. government computers. Victor Faur, 26, of Arad, Romania claims to have led a 'white hat team' to expose flaws in U.S. government computers. It seems everyone else has been busy hacking into government systems while I've been wasting my time playing Warcraft." From the article: "The breached computers were used to collect and process data from spacecraft. Because of the break-ins, systems had to be rebuilt and scientists and engineers had to manually communicate with spacecraft, resulting in $1.36 million in losses for NASA and nearly $100,000 in losses for the Energy Department and the Navy, prosecutors said. Several suspected NASA hackers have been dealing with law enforcement recently."
If a system is that important, and only has a single task, such as communicating with a spacecraft, why would it be accessible from outside sources?
Why bring the monetary damage (I'd be interested to see how it was calculated in the first place) into the equation at all? These are trifling amounts of money on the scale of government spending. 100k from the Navy and US Department of Energy? Yeah I'm sure they're feeling the 'loss'. Hacking into government systems should be enough of a crime without throwing this wacky money figure into it all.
Because of the break-ins, systems had to be rebuilt and scientists and engineers had to manually communicate with spacecraft, resulting in $1.36 million in losses for NASA and nearly $100,000 in losses for the Energy Department and the Navy, prosecutors said.
I smell a false inflation of damages, much like Motorola in the Mitnick case.
of glorifying such stunts and of the FBI refusing to even consider something for which there isn't at least $25,000 worth of damages.
Glorifying such fool pranks I would consider the same as glorifying cutting brake lines on school buses. Really quite funny when the bus driver tries to stop. How could it possibly hurt anyone because any bus driver is going to notice what is wrong long before the first child sets foot on the bus. Right. Keep thinking that way. Of course, what these folks did was just for fun and it didn't really hurt anyone, now did it?
The FBI putting a dollar floor on damages ensures that nothing is ever done when these kids do something minor. Rather than someone identifying them and giving them a warning nothing happens. When you were 16 if you were never, ever caught shoplifting would your escapades advance to other, higher-price objects? Of course. Which is exactly what is happening here.
ISPs refuse to identify or even forward communication from people complaining about attacks. So your only choices are to either wait for $25,000 in damages to bring in the FBI (who is the only possible law enforcement agency with jursidiction) or you decide to spend lots of your own money to file suit against some 16 year olds to "teach them a lesson". Of course, you end up with the "lesson" because they will be laughing at you when you find out you can't sue a kid in Romainia.
Also gives 'em something to tack onto next year's budget request...
rj
That these three have been caught is almost incidental, when you consider the probability that there are possibly several orders of magnitude more people who have not. Those who have been were not doing anything significant, except insofar that it was possible to do at all. Nobody - least of all NASA - knows what those who have NOT been caught are doing. We're constantly being reminded about how dangerous the world is and how important it is to track kitty litter as it comes into the country. Assuming the claims have any merit at all, I'd be just a little more concerned with what the Government itself is openly, passively and willingly handing out to whoever asks out there in that "dangerous world". If it's so bloody dangerous, shouldn't the Government be doing at least the very basic minimum?
(If, however, the real reason is that NASA isn't doing anything mission-critical and that all information it has has no value whatsoever, then just shut the bloody thing down and put the money into education. I think NASA is worthwhile, but then I'd have kicked their security into shape within the first five minutes of having the authority to do so. They aren't, so they clearly don't.)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Instead of tossing out a "guess-timate", they should not give a quote without all the facts present.
If the government claims $1.36M + $100k in damage done, they have to submit evidence to the court as to why and how they came up with those numbers. Much of the reason cases involving economic damage take so long is that the discovery phase of the trial, when all of this information gets unearthed and shared among plaintiff and defendant, takes a lot of depositions, requests for information, requests for further information, and so on. You'd better believe that *if* the US successfully gets him extradited to the United States, his attorney will be issuing subpoenas for proof of those numbers. If the government can't substantiate them, it won't fly with the judge.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
...if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. And "if you can't pay the fine, don't do the crime" works too.
Most people seem to be bringing up the lack of security on NASA systems or the inflated monetary loss estimates. Totally irrelevant. If I secure my house with a 100 year old skeleton key lock and also place a big sign in front of the house that says "Door key under welcome mat, $100,000 US in freezer behind ground beef", I may be stupid but that still does not give you the right to enter my house without my permission.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
Your Honor:
This kid broke into my house and stole a six pack of beer, but now I don't feel safe in my house anymore, so for actual damages I am including the cost of a house in a lower crime area with private security guards. The kid's dad originally bought the beer so I didn't include the cost of the beer in the total.
It's simple -- you just don't hack government computers. Way too much trouble when you get caught for that. Everybody knows that.
At least everybody *should* take note of that.