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Deceptive Duo Hacker Changes Plea
Source: internetnews.com - Posted by Vincenzo Ciaglia
Robert Lyttle, one of two hackers behind the Deceptive Duo team responsible for a number of network breaches in 2002, including a U.S. Navy database, has decided to plead guilty to the charges filed by the U.S. Attorneys' Office last year, according to documents filed in the case. The plea agreement between federal prosecutors and Lyttle in the case U.S. v. Robert Lyttle will be entered in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Oakland Division, Friday afternoon as part of a change of plea hearing. Kyle Waldinger, the assistant U.S. attorney listed on the agreement, was not available for comment at press time.
The decision to change his plea, Lyttle said, was made last year when he realized the intent of his activities had the desired effect: to warn the public of the lack of cybersecurity in the United States.
"There is no need to waste the resources, time and energy of any parties involved here," he told internetnews.com. "Our message was felt. Changes were made. The government will attest to that. That is all that matters."
Lyttle was facing five federal charges for his activities, which involved breaking into government computer networks, taking the sensitive information contained within and posting the information on public Web sites. In all, the government assessed the damages caused by the breaches and subsequent defacements at $71,181.
Lyttle and Benjamin Stark, the other half of the Deceptive Duo, were involved in several break-ins by their account, including the Web server breach of one of the U.S. Navy's databases, which contained classified and unclassified e-mail addresses and phone numbers of a number of Navy brass, and accessing a flight scheduling and passenger manifest database at Midwest Express. In both cases, the two posted the information on a publicly available Web site.
