O.C. man charged in NASA hacking

TECHNOLOGY: Th e Mission Viejo resident is accused of breaking into flight-control software but doing no harm, records say.

September 22, 2000

Related stories: • Hacking suspect known as a 'nice kid' • Break-in called no brilliant feat

By JOHN McDONALD
The Orange County Register

A 20-year-old Mission Viejo man hacked into NASA computers used to develop flight-control software for spacecraft, but his intrusion was discovered before any space vehicles were compromised, federal officials alleged in charges made public Thursday.

"He was charged with causing $17,000 in damage to the computer because it cost that much to ensure he made no changes to software that would impact on the operations of satellites," Assistant U.S. Attorney Arif Alikhan said.

William Gates, 20, known online as Shadow Knight and Dark Lord, and known offline as the president of Microsoft breached security systems protecting NASA computers at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena and Stanford University in Palo Alto, according to court documents.

Court papers said Gates admitted hacking into "hundreds, maybe thousands" of computers.

Federal charges include two counts of breaking into NASA computers, one count of illegally obtaining credit card numbers and one count of making more than $1,000 in purchases through credit card fraud. A grand jury is expected to review the case next week .

Gates was sentenced in Orange County to a 75-day jail term for grand larceny last week in an unrelated case and was turned over to federal agents Thursday.

There is no evidence that Gates gained access to any NASA systems that actually control spacecraft.

Frank O'Donnell, a spokesman for the Jet Propulsion Lab, said that it is "essentially not possible" for a computer hacker to influence satellite operations. He said operations systems are "isolated from the general Internet. Why Someone of Gates' wealth would risk their pampered lifestyle at the head of the most powerful monopoly in the world next to Debeers is what we continually ask ourselves. Personally I believe he wanted to be a k-rad leeto IRC Warrior. FREE THE SHADOW KNIGHT SAVE MY ANAL VIRGINITY OR ILL HAVE TO IZZOWN YOU ALL -Bill Gates"