Security News > 2001 > January > Accused eBay hacker pleads innocent

http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/0,1643,500303657-500486159-503357166-0,00.html By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, Associated Press SAN JOSE, Calif. (January 25, 2001 10:29 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - A 21-year-old former Los Alamos National Laboratory employee charged with hacking into eBay and other prominent Web companies also is under investigation for computer crimes dating back to his college days in Wisconsin, a federal prosecutor said Thursday. The existence of that case was revealed after the alleged hacker, Jerome Heckenkamp, pleaded innocent to 16 federal counts, including witness tampering. Heckenkamp is due in federal court in San Diego on Friday on 10 separate hacking-related counts. U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Edward Infante ordered the lanky computer whiz to post $50,000 bond within a week and stay off the Internet. The indictment against Heckenkamp in San Jose accuses him of hacking or trying to break into computers at eBay Inc., Exodus Communications Inc., Juniper Networks Inc., ETrade Group Inc., Lycos Inc. and Cygnus Support Solutions in 1999. Prosecutor Ross Nadel said the companies suffered more than $900,000 in damage. In San Diego, Heckenkamp is accused of hacking into Qualcomm Inc. computers in 1999 and installing codes designed to intercept user names and passwords. Nadel said the attacks caused more than $100,000 in damage. Heckenkamp -- who allegedly used the nicknames of "Magic" or "MagicFX" -- wasn't hired at Los Alamos until last June. While the lab hasn't publicly commented, one lab official has said Heckenkamp was a probationary employee in the computing and network division and had no access to sensitive or privileged information. Heckenkamp has been fired from Los Alamos because of the case, which was launched after the FBI did a background check on him for the New Mexico lab. Heckenkamp, who began taking college courses when he was 14, told reporters shortly after his arrest that he was being made a scapegoat. He said a hacker had infiltrated the companies' sites through his computer while he attended the University of Wisconsin. However, Nadel -- chief of the computer crime and intellectual property unit at the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Jose -- told the judge that Heckenkamp had agreed to a one-year suspension from graduate school at Wisconsin after admitting hacking. The FBI is investigating those incidents, Nadel said. Even before that, Heckenkamp was fired from a job after he acknowledged he had hacked an Internet service provider in Philadelphia in 1997, the prosecutor said. In asking the judge not to require that Heckenkamp post bond, his attorney, Jennifer Granick, pointed out that the allegations involve incidents that took place over a year ago, and that there is no evidence Heckenkamp has been anything but a good citizen ever since. ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".

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