NASA Hacker Gets Jail Time, Almost
A sentence in the case of 28 years old Romanian hacker Victor Faur, who back in 2005 and 2006 repeatedly broke into the systems of NASA, the United States Navy and the Department of Energy, has finally been issued, after a lengthy 10 month trial. The judge handed the hacker with a 16-month prison sentence (the suspended kind, meaning that he will not spend one minute behind bars) and a $240,000 fine. Considering the fact that back in 2006 a spokesperson from the US attorney’s office claimed the hacker faces a 54 years jail sentence, I think he got off easy.
According to Victor Faur, he is not guilty of doing anything wrong. All he did was help out a fellow computer programmer that had some server related problems. “He claimed it was his server and I wanted to help him, it was only later that I realized it was a NASA server. It was all a virtual game, a challenge and the will to help this guy configure the server. I did not pursue any material benefits and I was not aware of doing something illegal,” he said. The hacker is not willing to pay the rather hefty fine and is considering appealing the court’s decision. The thing is that he might be extradited to the US and the American courts might not take it so easy on him.
The US government does not see Faur’s actions as something to take lightly. According to the American authorities, the hacker leads a group called WhiteHat Team, who intentionally attempt to break into some of the most secure systems in the US of A. The reason they do this is to expose the security holes that plague some of the best configured networks. To put it simply, it is the most exciting endeavor a hacker can sign up to.
According to Victor Faur, he is not guilty of doing anything wrong. All he did was help out a fellow computer programmer that had some server related problems. “He claimed it was his server and I wanted to help him, it was only later that I realized it was a NASA server. It was all a virtual game, a challenge and the will to help this guy configure the server. I did not pursue any material benefits and I was not aware of doing something illegal,” he said. The hacker is not willing to pay the rather hefty fine and is considering appealing the court’s decision. The thing is that he might be extradited to the US and the American courts might not take it so easy on him.
The US government does not see Faur’s actions as something to take lightly. According to the American authorities, the hacker leads a group called WhiteHat Team, who intentionally attempt to break into some of the most secure systems in the US of A. The reason they do this is to expose the security holes that plague some of the best configured networks. To put it simply, it is the most exciting endeavor a hacker can sign up to.
