Suspect in hacking surrenders, is jailed; Lawyer says computer incidents in which 18-year-old is charged did not involve theft

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/more/cahners-chicago/11407/6439100/6

The Dallas Morning News
October 14, 2000

Holly Becka
Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News

An 18-year-old suspected of hacking into computers surrendered to
Dallas County authorities Friday, a day after he was indicted on
charges he defaced government Internet sites in Texas and Canada last
winter.

Robert Russell Sanford, a high school senior from Irving, surrendered
in state District Judge Karen Greene's court.

His parents accompanied him, as did E.X. Martin III, a Dallas attorney
who specializes in defending clients accused of computer-related
crimes.

Authorities say that Mr. Sanford belongs to the hacker group known as
"hV2k" and that he unlawfully accessed and defaced Web pages,
including those of six Texas government agencies, including the
Department of Public Safety.

During a brief hearing, Mr. Sanford's bond was set at a combined
$11,000 on the nine charges. He was then booked into jail.

His cases encompass one third-degree felony count of theft of at least
$20,000.00 six state-jail felony counts of computer security breach,
and two misdemeanor counts of computer breach. If convicted, he could
face up to 10 years in prison and a maximum $ 78,000 fine.

Mr. Sanford and his parents declined to comment. Mr. Martin said he
was not familiar with the cases and had not seen the indictments yet.

But the defense attorney said his initial assessment was that the
vandalism his client is accused of hadn't been intended to shut down
the Web sites but was intended as a prank.

"There was no credit-card theft," Mr. Martin said. "And this is not a
denial-of-service-type issue. It was more of a '[Web surfer's name]
was here' thing."

Assistant District Attorney Bart Bevers, the lead prosecutor, said he
could not discuss details about the pending case.

According to records, investigators allege that hV2k deprived the
computer systems' owners of their use by illegally accessing them and
writing statements such as, "This is getting boring SEKURE YER DAMN
NABIT NT SYSTEMS."

Mr. Sanford's theft charge is an aggregated case in which he's accused
of appropriating property - Web sites - belonging to the Texas
government agencies, the U.S. Postal Service, a publishing company and
the Canadian Department of Defence.

Computer hacking is usually classified as a federal crime. Mr. Martin
said the case wasn't being handled in federal court because Mr.
Sanford was 17 at the time of the alleged offense, so he's considered
a juvenile in the federal system but an adult in the state system.

Before the bond was set, Mr. Bevers asked the judge to consider that
Mr. Sanford was one of two youths accused in May 1999 of spiking a
teacher's coffee with LSD at Winfree Academy High School in Irving.
Juvenile prosecutors later dismissed that case against Mr. Sanford,
though Mr. Bevers declined to say why.

Judge Greene ordered Mr. Sanford to comply with special bond
conditions, including that he not use a computer except in his
parents' presence and that he submit to a drug urinalysis.

The young man agreed to comply, saying he had not used a computer or
surfed the Internet without his father present since investigators
came to his house in April.

Mr. Sanford's charges were filed after an investigation by the Texas
Department of Public Safety, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the
Canadian Forces National Investigative Service and the Postal
Inspector General.


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