Security Whistle-Blower Indicted
The head of an Internet security company that claimed to have found dangerous loopholes in U.S. military computers was arrested and indicted Monday on six counts of conspiracy to access military, government and private computers, said U.S. Attorney Carol Lam.
The indictment accuses Brett Edward O'Keefe, 36, of sharing military files with news media to generate favorable publicity for his company, ForensicTec Solutions. O'Keefe allegedly had unauthorized possession of files from NASA, the Army, the Navy, the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. O'Keefe said the company's goal was to call attention to the need for better security and "get some positive exposure" for the fledgling firm.
The indictment identifies O'Keefe as president of ForensicTec. The FBI raided ForensicTec's offices shortly after an August 2002 story in The Washington Post said ForensicTec claimed to have identified 34 military sites where network security and confidential files were easily compromised, including Army computers at Fort Hood, Texas, NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and Navy facilities in Maryland and Virginia.
