Systems admin for Navy nuclear department faces hacking charge


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Systems admin for Navy nuclear department faces hacking charge
by Danielle Walker

A former Navy member, who served as systems administrator in a nuclear reactor department, faces a federal charge for his alleged involvement in a hacking conspiracy. On Monday, the Department of Justice announced that the Virginia man, Nicholas Knight, was charged with one count of conspiring to hack the computer systems of over 30 public and private entities, while he was an active duty enlisted Navy member.In addition to Knight, a 20-year-old Illinois man, Daniel Krueger, was also charged with the conspiracy count for his alleged part in the scheme. The DOJ release said that the hacking conspiracy was “part of a plan to steal identities, obstruct justice and damage a protected computer”.
According to DOJ, the two men were a part of a hacking group called “Team Digi7al,” whose targets included the U.S. Navy, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University and the Toronto Police Service in Canada, were also allegedly hacked, the release said.
Knight, 27, served as the “self-proclaimed leader and publicist” of the hacker group, while Krueger was a student at an unnamed community college in Illinois, where he studied network administration, the release said. Federal prosecutors claimed that Krueger carried out the technical exploits, including hacking the U.S. Navy's Smart Web Move (SWM) database. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service detected the database breach in June 2012.
 
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