h4xx0r arrested

[Bob The Mercenary]

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/art...ing%20Standard

I know a billion dollars is a ton of money, but 70 years in prison?

I praised the guy as a master up until this line...

Friends said that he broke into the networks from his home computer to try to prove his theory that the US was covering up the existence of UFOs.

[Edit] Actually, on second thought, put him away for life.

[Zweihander]

He didn't even hack. Or crack.

He used off-the-Internet (kinda like off the shelf) software, stuff that was on par with script kiddies. All he did was a bunch of port sniffing and password guessing. Half the blame lies with the fools with passwords like "trustno1" and "password123."

Seriously, after this and the Citibank-UPS deal, people who can't make simple steps to make their computers and related equipment more secure* - especially if dealing with sensitive information, like SS #s, credit accounts, government data - should be locked away or "re-educated" a la Clockwork Orange.

* - The only truly secure computer is the one that isn't connected to any other computer. Even then, you'd need armed guards and shoulder-spies.