Bucharest - A Romanian IT graduate accused of having hacked
into US computer systems including those of the space agency NASA
appeared in court on Tuesday.
State prosecutors with special responsibility for organized crime
outlined the case against 22-year-old Victor Faur from the western
Romanian town of Arad, where the case is to be heard in the first
instance.
Faur faces a maximum 12 years in prison for having violated
security laws. US authorities including NASA are meanwhile claiming
damages of around 2 million dollars citing the cost of updating
software following the hacker attack.
According to state prosecutors Faul, the son of a doctor,
illegally accessed between November 2005 and September 2006 servers
belonging to NASA, the US Navy, the US Energy Ministry as well as the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Centre.
While in these systems he altered data, downloaded applications
and installed IRC (Internet Relay Chat) communications channels in
order to gain further access to information networks.
Romanian authorities investigated Faur after being alerted to his
activities by the United States. The US state attorney has accused
Faur of heading a hacker gang known as the 'White Hat Team.'
Faur has repeatedly stated that he was not a member of an
organized group, and claims to have hacked the NASA system in order
to prove its vulnerability.
'Everything was a game, I did not want to hurt anyone,' he said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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