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Teenage Hacker From London
Is Sued By America

By Robert Uhlig
The Telegraph - UK
12-19-3

A computer hacker from east London who exploited the vast power of a nuclear laboratory's computer network to download films and music from the internet is being sued for £21,215 by the American government.
 
Joseph McElroy, 18, an Exeter University student from Woodford Green, broke into 17 computers at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago, which deals with research into high energy sub-atomic particles.
 
His intrusion triggered a security alert and caused officials to "press the panic button", Bow Street magistrates' court was told yesterday.
 
"The United States took this matter very seriously because of the nature of the laboratory. It deals with both classified and non-classified networks," Sean Larkin, prosecuting, told the court at an earlier hearing.
 
The network was shut for three days while the US Department for Energy, which controls the nuclear arsenal, alerted Scotland Yard's computer crime unit, which tracked McElroy to his bedroom. He admitted breaking into the network. At a previous hearing he admitted unauthorised modification of the contents of a computer.
 
Stuart Sampson, prosecuting yesterday, said the American government estimated the cost of repairs, as a result of the hacking, at £21,000 in lost manpower hours.
 
Due to the large amount of compensation sought, District Judge Daphne Wickham referred the case to Southwark Crown Court, where McElroy will face a sentencing hearing in the New Year.
 
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news
/2003/12/19/nhack19.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/12/19/ixhome.html
 

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