Swede Faces Nasa Hacking Charges

A Swedish teenage boy is on charge of hacking NASA and Cisco Systems in 2004. A central jury in San Jose, Calif., indicted 21-year-old Philip Gabriel Pettersson as the suspected hacker.

Pettersson who is also known as Stakkato, was on charges of interruption and stealing trade secrets. He was accused of breaking into the CPU system and network of San Jose at California-based Cisco in May 2004 and theft operating system code. In May and October of the same year, Stakkato allegedly broke into computers belonging to the NASA’s Advanced Supercomputing Division and the NASA’s Ames Research Center. And the most interesting matter is that Pettersson was only 16-year-old when he did this daring job.

Law said the maximum punishment for each charge of interruption and theft of trade secrets is 10 years in jail and a fine of $250K.