Hacking is almost as old as the Internet itself, with many on the scene chasing the same unicorn: government servers.
And not just random government servers. No, we are talking about the ones owned and fiercely guarded by the US government.
Indeed, between November 2005 and September 2006, more than 120 US government servers – including those belonging to the DoE, NASA and Navy – were hacked by a Romanian hacker, known as SirVic.
Apparently though, he wasn’t as good as he thought, seeing as he was identified by the authorities and indicted by a Los Angeles court.
The court’s sentence for the many counts of computer hacking he was accused of added up to a grand total of 54 years in prison.
Fortunately for the Romanian, though, at that time the two countries’ extradition agreement did not include computer hacking. The US government then had to move the trial to Romania and asked for $1.5 million in damages. The trial ended in November 2008 with the Romanian court deciding for a 16-month suspended sentence and a $240,000 fine.
Victor Faur (SirVic’s real name), however, appealed the sentence. The defense? His intentions were not malicious, as he only wanted to warn about the flaws in the security measures – and even went as far as to suggest ways in which those flaws could be mended.
Faur also argued that the US government did not give any real evidence of the damage they insisted he caused, effectively rendering such claims unsubstantiated.
As expected, his appeal was rejected. But Faur declared he would not give up, and plans on taking the case to a higher court a justice to seek justice.
While fighting the US government, SirVic, owner of an IT consultancy company, has graduated law school and is hoping to get his doctorate in computer science.
[Via Softpedia and The Register]
