Threat Management

Man receives jail time and hefty fine for hacking government supercomputers

A Pennsylvania man received jail time after hacking into, and attempting to sell access, to two government supercomputers.

Andrew Miller offered to sell access to machines at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for $50,000 to an undercover FBI agent. The U.S. Department of Energy supports the lab, and is managed through the University of California. After proposing the sale, Miller sent the agent his personal information to set up a wire transfer, which consequently led to his arrest and 18-month sentence.

In addition to attempting to sell login information for the supercomputers, Miller sold access to two telecom providers to the same undercover agent for $2,200. Working with co-conspirators under the name "Underground Intelligence Agency," the group also sold access – for an extra $1,000 – to servers at Domino's Pizza.

Miller was previously convicted as a minor for writing malicious software.

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