Los Alamos worker arrested on hacking charges

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-4438378.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed.ni

By Reuters
Special to CNET News.com
January 10, 2001, 6:15 p.m. PT

SAN FRANCISCO--A current employee of the Los Alamos National
Laboratory, the nation's top nuclear weapons research facility, has
been arrested on charges of computer hacking and tampering with a
witness while a student, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday.

A senior lab official stressed that all of the charges related to
activity before the suspect joined the staff at Los Alamos--which has
been hit with a string of security problems--and that there was no
evidence that any of the nation's sensitive nuclear secrets had been
compromised.

The employee, 21-year-old Jerome Heckenkamp, was arrested Tuesday at
Los Alamos on an indictment returned by a San Jose, Calif., grand jury
last December, according to a news release issued by the
U.S. Attorney's Office.

According to the indictment, Heckenkamp used the names "MagicFX" and
"Magic" to commit computer intrusions and intercept electronic
communications between Feb. 26, 1999, and Nov. 29, 1999, apparently
while he was a student at the University of Wisconsin.

The indictment also alleges that Heckenkamp attempted to tamper with a
witness in the case with a view to persuading that person to withhold
testimony.

A senior Los Alamos official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
all of the charges related to activity that occurred well before
Heckenkamp was hired to work on the lab's network and information
systems in June 2000. "We were notified by the bureau after he was
hired and we took every possible step necessary to protect our info
security and our nation's secrets," the official said.

"He had no access, either physically or electronically, to anything of
a sensitive nature at the lab."

Los Alamos' security measures have been under increased scrutiny
following the December 1999 arrest of former lab physicist Wen Ho Lee
on charges of mishandling sensitive nuclear data, and the temporary
disappearance of two computer hard drives containing nuclear secrets.

Initially portrayed as a spy for China, the Taiwanese-born Lee
eventually pleaded guilty to one felony count of downloading nuclear
weapons design secrets to a nonsecure computer. The hard drives, which
disappeared in May last year, were subsequently found behind a copying
machine.

The lab official said security officials had been over Los Alamos'
systems "with an exceptionally fine-toothed comb" and found no
evidence of any tampering related to the Heckenkamp case. "There is
absolutely no evidence of anything improper," he said.

Heckenkamp, who has also been charged in a separate indictment
returned by a federal grand jury in San Diego, appeared in court in
Los Alamos on Wednesday and was detained in federal custody pending
further hearings.

He is scheduled to return to court Thursday for a hearing to determine
whether he will be moved to either San Jose or San Diego, the
U.S. Attorney's Office said.

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