Yale hacker faces 95 years in prison says DA

Source: SNP

A teenage Texas hacker using an obsolescent personal computer and a telephone allegedly broke into Yale University's computer system in 2000 from his bedroom, and now faces up to 95 years in prison. Jason Jarrell, now 19, who lives with his mother in a town outside Dallas, appeared in Superior Court here Thursday. He is scheduled to be arraigned April 22 on six counts of computer crime. Jarrell is accused of tapping into computers at the Bass Laboratory Nuclear Magnetic Resonance System, the Child Study Center, the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory, the School of Management, Information Technology Services, and the Engineering Robotics Laboratory. He was 16 at the time. Damage is estimated to be at least $150,000, based on the time the computers were down and the hours of work necessary to clean and rejuvenate the systems.

"This is the first major network intrusion case brought at a state level in Connecticut," said Senior Assistant State's Attorney John Blawie. "He hijacked a Yale account and there's evidence that he boasted on the Internet of having 'owned' Yale," Blawie said. The seesaw contest between hackers and law enforcement is bound to continue, he said. "This case makes it clear that we're treating these offenses as a high priority," Blawie said. The Connecticut Computer Crimes Task Force caught up to Jarrell by tracking down his telephone number with the help of his Internet Service Provider.

Jarrell supposedly broke into Yale's computers repeatedly from his home in Coppell, creating his own user accounts and installing hidden software to monitor Yale network traffic and gather passwords, according to the warrant for his arrest. Using an array of hacking programs and techniques, Jarrell apparently elevated himself to computer "root administrator," which gave him cyber authority to further manipulate the machines, Blawie said. Jarrell allegedly installed a private "backdoor" on the Yale computer system — and then closed it behind him to prevent access by other hackers, according to the warrant.