A British man has been charged and arrested over hacking into U.S. government's computer systems, including the U.S. Army and NASA.
Lauri Love, 28, a resident of Stradishall, England was arrested on Friday, October 25. Love and his three co-conspirators (one in Sweden and two in Australia) allegedly infiltrated into several U.S.-based computer systems, including the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, NASA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In the UK, Love was charged for violating the Computer Misuse Act and in the U.S. he was charged with accessing U.S. government computer without permission.
The hacking of U.S. government computers took place from October 2012 until October 2013. Love's hacking compromised various sensitive data regarding U.S. military personnel, information on defense budgets, contract bidding, and more. Love is also believed to have successfully stolen personal details of around 5,000 government employees.
Love was arrested at his home, which is 70 miles away from London, by the cybercrime unit of Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA). However, per a Reuters report, Love has been released on bail until February 2014.
Love along with his co-conspirators tried to install malware in the hacked systems and created systems with which they can later return and steal sensitive data from the hacked computers. Love is also said to have discussed the hacking on chat rooms and how it can be concealed.
"In an October 2012 conversation described in the indictment, Love discussed the hacking of an Army Corps database that might have yielded 400,000 email addresses, and asked a co-conspirator to 'grab one email for curiosity.' Nine months later, in July 2013, he appeared to boast about accessing a NASA database, telling another co-conspirator 'ahaha, we owning lots of nasa sites,'" per Reuters.
Love now faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
