US hacker gets a year in the slammer

A man who pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit computer fraud and identity theft has been sentenced to one year's imprisonment by a Florida court.

Justin A Perras was one of five co-defendants who admitted hacking into computers at information management and workflow provider LexisNexis.

The computers were accessed using Trojans and social engineering tricks in order to make unauthorised entries into the company's Accurint database, which is used by law enforcement agencies among others.

Perras was sentenced to one year in prison, followed by three years supervised release and 100 hours of community service.

The other defendants were sentenced in December 2006 for their roles in the conspiracy, and between them must pay LexisNexis US$105,750 in compensation.

All five culprits have been banned from using computers following the discovery of their crimes.

"The US law enforcement agencies must be congratulated again for another big computer hacking arrest, which will hopefully deter others from following in the footsteps of Perras who is going nowhere fast for the next few years," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"The case demonstrates the value of swiftly reporting any network intrusions to the appropriate authorities.

"However, the fact that Accurint was used by law enforcement agencies is likely to have given the US secret service an extra spring in its step in tracking down the perpetrators."

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