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Alleged UK hacker charged with breaking into military and NASA databases

Alleged UK hacker charged with breaking into military and NASA databases

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An alleged UK hacker has been charged with compromising the sites and databases of several US agencies, Reuters reports. Lauri Love was arrested late last week and has now been indicted in the state of New Jersey, where he is facing one count of accessing a US government computer without authorization and one count of conspiracy. According to the government's filing, Love and three co-conspirators were responsible for hacking computers belonging to NASA, the Army, the State Department, and the Missile Defense Agency starting in October of 2012.

Love and his partners allegedly used a variety of techniques to compromise the sites, then placed "thousands" of back doors that would give them access in the future. "You have no idea how much we can fuck with the US government if we wanted to," he's quoted as writing after one hack. "It's basically every piece of information you'd need to do full identity theft on any employee or contractor" for a specific agency. The statement obviously isn't necessarily true, but previous reports have indicated that hackers got access to information including names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, addresses, and salaries of 36,000 Army members and affiliates in late 2012.

Much of the data Love is accused of getting is personal identifying information from the Army, Missile Defense Agency, NASA, and others, usually through database vulnerabilities. The AP reports that while he's being charged in New Jersey because he allegedly sent data through a server in the state, he faces similar charges in Virginia as well.