[ISN] Misawa airman busted one rank, docked pay for hacking

[InfoSec News]

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=30396

By Jennifer H. Svan
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition
July 17, 2005

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan - An airman first class with the 35th 
Communications Squadron was sentenced to 10 days of confinement and 
reduced in rank to E-2 for trying to hack into personal computer files 
on base.

James A. Stout, formerly a technician in the base's Network Control 
Center, also will forfeit two-thirds of his pay and allowances for one 
month.

Stout pleaded guilty in a summary court-martial Thursday to violating 
Air Force instruction governing transmission of information by the 
Internet, and to breaking a federal law by intentionally accessing a 
computer without authorization.

While working on a government computer during an overnight shift on 
Dec. 3, 2004, Stout downloaded two hackers' programs from the Internet 
in an attempt to decrypt the base's user name and password file, 
giving him access to all base user accounts, including e-mail, 
according to prosecutor Capt. Jason Spence of the 35th Fighter Wing's 
Office of the Staff Judge Advocate.

He copied it to a second computer and ultimately uploaded the user 
name and password file and a decryption program onto a personal Web 
server via the Internet, the prosecutor said.

He was caught after Pacific Air Forces' Network Operations Security 
Center, which monitors Internet traffic, notified the base of a 
possible intrusion into its computer system, Spence said. Three 
communications squadron airmen traced Stout back to the government 
computer during the time of the incident by reviewing security 
log-ins, Spence said.

Stout never succeeded in breaking the code, having deleted the file 
and decryption programs from his government computers and Web server 
in the same work shift after he became aware that PACAF had notified 
the Network Control Center of the problem.

Stout claimed he was bored and wanted to access his supervisor's 
account to grant himself higher computer rights that he could use on 
the job to fix network problems, Spence said. He also said he wanted 
to see other parts of the network, including personal computer files, 
such as e-mail.

When Stout transferred the Misawa files from his government computer 
to a personal Web server over the Internet, "a third-party person - 
foreign government, terrorist, hacker - could have taken our password 
file and copied it to their own computer while it was in transit," 
possibly allowing them to access Misawa's unclassified database, 
Spence said in court. If a third party obtained access and deleted 
that file, "it would bring the mission to a halt - basically, 
everything is in there," he said.
 
© 2003 Stars and Stripes.