Judge takes byte out of local hackers

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=061902&ID=s1169612&cat=section.business

Kevin Blocker
Staff writer 
June 19, 2002 

Correction (6/20/02): Visiting federal Judge Edward Shea sentenced
three men for their roles in hacking into computer systems and storing
credit card numbers from Web sites.

Three Spokane men were sentenced Tuesday for their roles in hacking
into computer systems and storing 2,700 credit card numbers from
Internet business sites.

One of the defendants forced the shutdown of the Web site of the
Washington, D.C., mass transit system in May 2000.

Brent J. Woodfield, 21, pleaded guilty to hacking into the systems,
and Erik R. Thompson, 22, and Sean R. Shelton, 22, pleaded guilty to
helping Woodfield store the evidence.

The three were accused of replacing transit information in the
nation's capital with profanity-laced protests of lawsuits brought
against the company Napster to stop the free downloading of music.

FBI agents also found 2,700 credit card numbers that had been moved
from Woodfield's apartment to Thompson's home.

"We believe they hacked into hundreds of Web sites and illegally
obtained these credit card numbers," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom
Rice.

Authorities have no evidence that the three used the credit card
numbers. They were arrested last December.

The hacking of the Web site of the Washington Metropolitan Transit
Authority occurred on May 29, 2000. It temporarily shut down the Web
site used by 1.8 million people a year for schedule information and
ticket sales.

Woodfield received six months' home confinement and three years'
probation. The men cannot have contact with computers unless they
receive approval from their probation officers.

"My client is anxious to get this over with and face the
consequences," Woodfield's attorney, Terence Ryan, said Tuesday.

Despite the defendants' remorse, U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle
leveled stern words at them.

"I don't think you get it, Mr. Thompson," said Van Sickle, who
sentenced Thompson to three years' probation, a year more than
attorneys for both sides had agreed to.

"I hear you're intelligent, but your record shows bad judgment," the
judge said. "You just show the inability to be successful."

Thompson dropped out of high school before getting his GED. Then he
enrolled in college, sported a 1.89 grade-point average and dropped
out.

"Your life is not `Good Will Hunting,"' Van Sickle said. "You are on
the verge of criminal activity."

As for Shelton, Van Sickle told him the only sign of recent success in
his life was getting into a "terrible accident" and receiving a
substantial award for it.

Van Sickle agreed with Shelton's attorney that he was the "least
culpable" of the three because he wasn't as computer-literate. Shelton
received a year of probation.



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