eBay hacker pleads guilty

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: Marjorie Simmons <lawyer () carpereslegalis com>

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/35295.html 

By Kevin Poulsen
SecurityFocus
3/2/04

Jerome Heckenkamp pleaded guilty Thursday to defacing the online
auction house eBay and penetrating systems at the San Diego-based
telecommunication equipment maker Qualcomm, ending years of pre-trial
court wrangling and casting considerable doubt on his public claims of
innocence.

Under the terms of his plea deal with prosecutors, Heckenkamp, 24,
admitted to causing at least $70,000 in losses in a 1999 hacking spree
while a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. In addition
to the Qualcomm and eBay hacks -- the latter performed under the
handle "MagicFX"  -- Heckenkamp admitted to penetrating the systems of
Exodus Communications, Juniper Networks, Lycos, and Cygnus Solutions.

Prosecutors agreed to recommend no more than two years in prison, and
not to seek restrictions on Heckenkamp's employment-related use of
computers and the Internet in the period of court supervision likely
to follow any prison term.

The hacker will get credit for approximately eight months of time that
he spent in custody in 2002, after he fired his lawyer to clear the
way for a series of unusual legal challenges that only served to
perplex and anger federal judges in two jurisdictions.

Among other gambits, Heckenkamp had argued that the government lacked
standing to prosecute anyone, and that the indictments in the case
referred to a different defendant: they spelled his name in all
capital letters, while he spells it with the first letter capitalized
and subsequent letters in lower case. Angered by the arguments,
federal judge James Ware declared Heckenkamp a flight risk and ordered
him arrested in the courtroom. He was released on bail, months later,
only after accepting legal representation again.

Defense attorney Benjamin Coleman says he'll ask the court to accept a
formulation of federal sentencing guideline factors that limits
Heckenka mp's sentence to the time he's already served. "The way the
guideline should be calculated, he should get time-served," said
Coleman. "He shouldn't do any more time."

The plea agreement also allows the lawyer to challenge as
unconstitutional the 1999 search of Heckenkamp's computer that led to
the charges. According to court records, examination of the deleted
file space on Heckenkamp's Linux box surfaced a detailed personal log
of computer intrusions at 120 different universities and companies.

If the appeal is successful, Heckenkamp's conviction could be undone.
But either way, his oft-repeated claims of innocence are likely a
thing of the past.

In a 2002 jailhouse interview with SecurityFocus, Heckenkamp claimed
that hackers had penetrated his dorm-room computer and used it to
crack other systems. "Some of these companies I had never even heard
of before I was charged," said Heckenkamp. A similar theme dominated a
website set up by supporters and maintained by Heckenkamp's father,
coloring the hacker an "innocent scapegoat of a restless, unrelenting
and desperate FBI, caught in the middle of a 21st century spin-off of
McCarthyism."

That website could no longer be reached Monday. Heckenkamp's father,
Thomas Heckenkamp, declined to comment on the plea. Sentencing in the
case is set for May 10th.



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