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Canadian police make arrest in NASA computer hacking case

Web posted April 7, 1998

Associated Press

SUDBURY, Ontario -- A 22-year-old Canadian man faces dozens of charges for allegedly cracking the computer security codes at NASA and other top aerospace facilities in the United States.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which conducted a 14-month investigation, say a hacker broke into the computer systems at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Center, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association and Hughes STC, an aerospace firm.

The hacker also got into several private computer systems at universities in Canada and the United States, police said.

Police raided a home in Sudbury and one in nearby Val Caron on Wednesday, arresting Jason Mewhiney and seizing documents, computer systems and disks.

The raids followed a joint investigation by the RCMP, the FBI, NASA and the computer crime division of the U.S. Office of the Inspector General.

Mewhiney has been charged with mischief by willfully obstructing and interfering with the use of data. He is out on bail and will appear in court May 13.