Hacker Accesses Key U.S Defence System

Published: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

HACKER ACCESSES KEY U.S. DEFENCE SYSTEMS

20-something admits to federal charges

Reuters reports from Los Angeles that a 20-something computer hacker has pleaded guilty to using hundreds of thousands of hijacked computers, or "bot nets," to damage systems and send massive waves of spam across the Internet.

Jeanson James Ancheta, who prosecutors said was a well-known member of a secret hacking network called the "Botmaster Underground" was arrested in November in what prosecutors said was the first such case of its kind.

"Mr. Ancheta was responsible for a particularly insidious string of crimes," U.S. Attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek said. "He hijacked somewhere in the area of half a million computer systems. This not only affected computers like the one in your home, but it allowed him and others to orchestrate large scale attacks."

Prosecutors say the case was unique because Ancheta was accused of profiting from his attacks by selling access to his "bot nets" to other hackers and planting adware, software that causes advertisements to pop up, into infected computers.

Among computers he attacked were some at the Weapons Division of the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California, and at the U.S. Department of Defense."