Student charged with hacking

[William Knowles <erehwon () KIZMIAZ DIS ORG>]

http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/hacker012700.htm

Posted at 8:53 p.m. PST Wednesday, January 26, 2000
BY HOWARD MINTZ

Mercury News Staff Writer

A federal grand jury in San Jose on Wednesday indicted a former
Princeton University student suspected of hacking into the computer
system of a Palo Alto e-commerce company and stealing nearly 2,000
credit card numbers.

In the government's latest attempt to hunt down a computer hacker,
federal prosecutors brought charges against Peter Iliev Pentchev, a
22-year-old native of Bulgaria who is believed to have fled the United
States after school officials confronted him about his computer
activities.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office in San Jose, Pentchev left the
country in late 1998, shortly after the alleged hacking incident
occurred. Law enforcement officials believe Pentchev went to Bulgaria
and were unclear Wednesday what diplomatic obstacles there may be to
returning him to this country to face charges.

The four-count indictment charges Pentchev with violating federal
computer laws by hacking into an undisclosed Palo Alto company between
Nov. 20 and Dec. 19, 1998, stealing at least 1,800 credit card
numbers, as well as user names and passwords of that company's
customers. The indictment does not specify the company, and federal
officials declined to name it.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Mavis Lee, who is prosecuting the case,
said the hacking incident shut down one of the company's Web servers
for five days and caused enough chaos in its database that it cost the
firm more than $100,000 to restore its security system.

Authorities have no evidence that Pentchev used the credit card
numbers to commit fraud.

Federal law-enforcement officials do not believe there is a link
between Pentchev and a computer intruder who earlier this month
attempted to extort $100,000 from Internet music retailer CD Universe,
claiming to have stolen as many as 300,000 credit card numbers. The
alleged extortionist was suspected of operating somewhere in Eastern
Europe.

That hacker began posting more than 25,000 allegedly stolen card
numbers on a web site Christmas Day. The site eventually was shut
down, and thousands of customers who had shopped at CD Universe
canceled their cards.

In the Bay Area case, investigators said they were able to trace the
computer intrusion to Pentchev because he left evidence in log files
in the company's computer system. ``He wasn't careful about mopping up
after himself,'' Lee said.

Princeton University officials confronted Pentchev about the
allegations in December 1998, and he disappeared shortly thereafter.
If convicted, Pentchev faces a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison.


==
Some day, on the corporate balance sheet, there will be
an entry which reads, "Information"; for in most cases
the information is more valuable than the hardware which
processes it. -- Adm. Grace Murray Hopper, USN Ret.
==
http://www.dis.org/erehwon/

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