Man Gets 6 Months in NASA Hacking Case

Gregory Aaron Herns, 21, was a 17-year-old computer whiz at an alternative high school in southeast Portland when he hacked into the computer system at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Herns told federal agents he was looking for computer space to store movies he'd downloaded. It took hours for technicians to find the problem, fix it and patch the system's security holes, officials said.

"It would be like clearing a sidewalk full of spectators with a fire hose so you can walk through it," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Nyhus.

Herns, now a computer science student at Mt. Hood Community College, apologized to the space agency and federal law enforcement officials on Friday.

"These actions took place years ago and are behind me," he told U.S. District Judge Anna Brown. "I've moved on since."

His attorney, Michael R. Levine, said his client was just a kid when the crime took place: "He was a computer geek _ with all due respect."

But Nyhus said Herns' activities were much more than a teenager playing around on the computer.