FBI hacker spared jail

Joseph Thomas Colon, the government consultant who accessed the FBI’s high-security classified computer network, has been spared jail. The judge in his case ruled that Mr Colon was not a malicious attacker and did not want to harm national security. This meant that a much lighter sentence was possible, even though the case involved unauthorised access to some of the most secret databases and networks in the US. Mr Colon used simple conventional methods in order to crack the FBI network from the inside and claimed he had the tacit approval of his FBI superiors.

“This is not a case of al-Qaeda people trying to sneak into the FBI system”, said Judge Richard J. Leon about the Mr Colon, who used his computer expertise to bypass bureaucratic barriers and obstacles. The IT consultant pleaded guilty to several counts of exceeding authorised access back in March. During the course of the trial it had been revealed that Mr Colon gained access to FBI networks and tens of thousands of employees passwords. He also managed to break into computers within the network, including that of the FBI director. The prosecution did not allege that Mr Colon acted out of malice or for reasons of financial gain, but the former government consultant could still have faced up to 18 months in prison as a result of his actions. Given the sensitive nature of his break-ins the FBI had to spend millions of dollars investigating whether any secret data was leaked.