14 DAY TRIAL // A Texas man pleaded guilty earlier this week to offenses related to the theft of funds from SWReg and also the hacking of computer servers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Jeremey Parker, 26, of Houston, Texas was indicted in October 2010 for hacking into the computer network of SWReg, a payment solutions vendor owned by Digital River, and stealing money by creating fake accounts.
SWReg pays royalties to independent software developers who have the ability to log into their accounts on the company's wevbsite and withdraw them.
Parker created multiple developer accounts and then used his unauthorized access to credit them with money which he later transfered to his bank account.
The hacker admitted stealing approximately $275,000 from SWReg using this method between December 2008 to October 2009.
In addition, he also admitted to hacking into two NASA computers used to serve oceanographic data gathered by satellites to members of the scientific community.
As a result of the hacking, NASA had to take a related website offline, preventing almost 3,300 users from accessing the data. The repairs cost the agency $43,000.
Instead of charging Parker separately in Maryland U.S. Attorneys decided to add the hacking charge to the SWReg case which is being brought in the District of Minnesota.
Parker pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of computer hacking, punishable by an additional 10.
SWReg's parent company, Digital River, is a large provider of e-commerce solutions whose clients include big names like Microsoft, EA Games, Logitech, Autodesk, THQ, CAPCOM, NETGEAR and even antivirus vendors like Kaspersky Lab or Trend Micro.
This was not the first time when the company was targeted by hackers. In June 2010, unidentified attackers stole the information of 200,000 of its customers and put it up for sale on the underground market.