14 DAY TRIAL // U.S. authorities investigating the 2004 theft of the Cisco IOS and two computer intrusions at NASA, have identified Philip Gabriel Pettersson, a 21-year-old Swedish citizen, as being the person responsible. The hacker has been indicted on five counts of intentionally causing damage to a protected computer and trade-secret misappropriation.
During May 2004, Pettersson, known to the hacking community as "Stakkato," successfully hacked into a secure computer at Cisco from where he downloaded the source code for Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) version 12.3, a proprietary application used to manage the routers produced and sold by the company.
The approximately 800MB source code was subsequently leaked onto the Internet, raising serious security concerns amongst industry professionals, who feared that hackers would be able to easily identify holes in the system and attack routing equipment. Three of the charges outlined in the indictment are related to the Cisco incident and are each punishable with a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, followed by three years of supervised probation and a fine of up to $250,000.
However, Cisco was not the only victim of the then 16-year-old hacker from Sweden. Also, in May 2004, Pettersson is said to have hacked into computers located at the NASA Ames Research Center, in California, and at NASA's Advanced Supercomputing Division (NAS). For these intrusions, Stakkato has been charged with two counts of intentionally causing damage to a protected computer, for which he faces sentences identical to the ones for the Cisco transgressions.
"The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI; U.S. Secret Service; NASA Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Computer Crimes Division; and numerous additional federal agencies," is noted in a Department of Justice press release. Swedish authorities are said to have cooperated, however, since Sweden does not extradite its citizens, it is unlikely that Pettersson will ever be trialed in the U.S.
The investigators tracked the attacks back to a computer at the Uppsala University, a computer that was hacked by Pettersson in 2004, along with machines from two other Swedish universities. The teenage hacker has already been charged in Sweden for those intrusions and has been ordered to pay $25,000 as restitution.
According to Wired, the only way Philip Gabriel Pettersson will face the new charges is if he is arrested outside of Sweden or if the Swedish authorities agree to prosecute him in the country on request.