Pentagon, NASA hacker TinKode arrested

Romanian police have arrested a hacker accused of breaking into servers belonging to the Pentagon, NASA and the British Royal Navy.

Ravzan Manole Cernăianu, a 20-year-old university student, was arrested following a sting led by Romanian and US authorities. 

According to The Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), Cernăianu used the alias TinKode and posted on his blog software and SQL vulnerabilities used to break into servers.

It also alleged Cernăianu posted videos on his blog detailing attacks on US Government web sites.

The US embassy in Bucharest said Cernăianu used "advanced hacking tools to gain unauthorised access to government and commercial systems".

TinKode had twice published staff login details stolen in separate hacks of the European Space Agency web site attacked in April last year, and the British Royal Navy site which was hacked in 2010.

The hacker said the breaches were made for academic reasons and were designed to draw attention to security vulnerabilities.

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