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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.
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.
...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.