http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=127341
By Bill Goodwin
19 December 2003
The US is demanding £21,000 in compensation from a teenage hacker who
infiltrated computer systems at a US government nuclear physics
research laboratory.
The compensation demand, believed to be the first time an organisation
has used the UK criminal courts to recover the costs of repairing
hacked computer systems, could set a precedent for future prosecutions
against computer criminals.
Joseph James McElroy, 18, a first-year student at Exeter University,
pleaded guilty to hacking into computer systems at Fermi National
Accelerator Laboratory in Chicago, at a hearing at Bow Street’s
magistrates court last month.
He admitted using the Fermilab computers, part of the US Department of
Energy, to create a private bulletin board to store hundreds of
gigabytes of copyrighted film and music files which he shared with
friends.
The laboratory was forced to shut down the infected computer system
for three days, to carry out repairs after staff noticed that
scheduled back-ups were taking far longer than expected.
McElroy was arrested at his parents' home in London following a joint
investigation by the US Department of Energy and Scotland Yard’s
Computer Crime Unit.
He told police that he was under the impression that the Fermilab
computers were owned by a university rather than a US government
laboratory.
He admitted hacking into university computer systems to gain access to
the internet because he believed they did not have to pay internet
access charges. He told police that he made a point of not hacking
into corporate systems.
At a hearing yesterday at Bow Street Magistrates court, Judge Daphne
Wickham referred McElroy for sentencing at Southwark Crown Court in
the new year.
Stuart Sampson, for the prosecution, told the court that the US
government had estimated the cost of repairing the hacked computers at
£21,000.
The figure, however, does not include the costs of the investigation
which led to McElroy's arrest.
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