Navy Nuclear Carrier Sysadmin Busted For Hacking Databases

Boredom cited as excuse for alleged hack campaign that may have compromised more than 30 government and private sites.



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A former US Navy systems administrator is part of a group that's been charged with hacking into 30 different sites and stealing sensitive information, while working in the nuclear reactor department aboard the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.

A 22-page indictment filed this week in US District Court in Oklahoma charged alleged members of "Team Digi7al" with hacking and stealing sensitive information from sites run by the likes of the Department of Homeland Security, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Harvard University, AT&T U-verse, and the Toronto Police Department.

According to the indictment, the gang comprised at least five people: Nicholas Paul Knight (a.k.a. Inertia, Logic, nickmc01, Solo, INER7IA), 27, a former enlisted Navy member and self-described "nuclear black hat" who handled publicity; Daniel Trenton Krueger (Thor, Orunu, Gambit, Chronius, 7hor, G4mbi7), 20, a network administration student at an Illinois community college who handled the technical side; and three minors -- based in Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana -- who performed technical hacking work.

If a Team Digi7al Pastebin post is to be believed, however, the group counted eight members: Logic, 7hor, Shr00mi3, Sp3ctrum, Ichi, Kalypto, Th1nkT0k3n, and ThePonyWizard.

[Those serving in the military are twice as likely to fall victim to identity theft as the general public. How can we mitigate the risk? Read Defending Against Identity Theft In The Military.]

Regardless, the group drew the attention of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) after the gang's members began posting to Twitter (@TeamDigi7al) links to dumps of partial personal information pertaining to 20 Navy personnel.

"So heres that #Dump i was talking about. #US #Navy was our target," read a June 17, 2012, post. About a week later, the group also posted a link to the Navy's Smart Web Move site. Launched in June 2001, the web-based service was developed

Mathew Schwartz served as the InformationWeek information security reporter from 2010 until mid-2014. View Full Bio

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