The US is demanding £21,000 in compensation from a
teenage hacker who infiltrated computer systems at a US government
nuclear physics research laboratory.
The compensation demand, believed to be the first time an
organisation has used the UK criminal courts to recover the costs
of repairing hacked computer systems, could set a precedent for
future prosecutions against computer criminals.
Joseph James McElroy, 18, a first-year student at Exeter
University, pleaded guilty to hacking into computer systems at
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Chicago, at a hearing at
Bow Street’s magistrates court last month.
He admitted using the Fermilab computers, part of the US
Department of Energy, to create a private bulletin board to store
hundreds of gigabytes of copyrighted film and music files which he
shared with friends.
The laboratory was forced to shut down the infected computer
system for three days, to carry out repairs after staff noticed
that scheduled back-ups were taking far longer than expected.
McElroy was arrested at his parents' home in London following a
joint investigation by the US Department of Energy and Scotland
Yard’s Computer Crime Unit.
He told police that he was under the impression that the
Fermilab computers were owned by a university rather than a US
government laboratory.
He admitted hacking into university computer systems to gain
access to the internet because he believed they did not have to pay
internet access charges. He told police that he made a point of not
hacking into corporate systems.
At a hearing yesterday at Bow Street Magistrates court, Judge
Daphne Wickham referred McElroy for sentencing at Southwark Crown
Court in the new year.
Stuart Sampson, for the prosecution, told the court that the US
government had estimated the cost of repairing the hacked computers
at £21,000.
The figure, however, does not include the costs of the
investigation which led to McElroy’s arrest.