[ISN] 'Hacker' held over U.S. Navy breach

[InfoSec News]

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/16/spain.us/

CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman
January 16, 2006 

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- An 18-year-old suspected Spanish hacker who
allegedly breached the top-secret computer security of a U.S. Navy
base in San Diego has been arrested, according to the Spanish Civil
Guard.

The alleged hacker "seriously compromised the correct operations and
security of a maintenance dry dock for nuclear submarines" a statement
said on Monday.

U.S. Navy computer security specialists started an investigation when
they detected illegal access to a U.S. Department of Defense computer
at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego. They later determined the cyber
incident had originated in Spain, the statement said.

The Spanish suspect was arrested last week in the southern provincial
capital of Malaga, on the Mediterranean coast, where he lives.

The Civil Guard searched his home and seized a computer and other
items that were being analyzed, a Civil Guard spokeswoman told CNN on
Monday.

The U.S. notified Spanish authorities, and the paramilitary Civil
Guard's cyber-terrorism unit got involved. The Spanish suspect is a
resident of the southern provincial capital of Malaga, on the
Mediterranean coast.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Madrid said there was no immediate U.S.  
reaction. The embassy, like most U.S. government offices, is closed
due to observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.

The alleged hacker was part of a group that aimed to breach computer
security systems connected to the Internet for illegal means, the
Civil Guard's statement said, adding that the group allegedly had
breached more than a hundred computer systems, causing damages of more
than $500,000.

The Civil Guard was able to locate the suspected hacker in part
through the testimony of four witnesses in other parts of Spain, the
statement said. The other four were not arrested.