Romanian Iceman hacks NASA

Police in Romania this week arrested a 26-year-old hacker accused of breaking into several servers belonging to NASA, and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.

Robert Butyka was detained Tuesday in Cluj Napoca, Romania's fourth most populated city, according to a news release issued by Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT).

Butyka, who reportedly used the online alias “Iceman,” allegedly hacked into NASA's servers beginning in December last year.

He then purportedly damaged data on the systems and restricted access to the information, causing major disruptions, according to Romanian authorities.

Damage from Butyka's alleged actions cost the US space agency $500,000.

Butyka faces various computer crime charges, including obtaining unauthorised access and causing serious disruption to a computer system, restricting access to data without authorisation, and possessing hacking programs.

Authorities this week seized several computers at his home during a raid. He was ordered to spend 24 hours in police custody.

This is not the first time a Romanian hacker has been charged with breaking into NASA's systems. Victor Faur, 26, a native of the western Romanian town of Arad, in 2005 broke into systems belonging to NASA and other government agencies, causing US$2 million in damages.

In November 2008, he was handed a 16-month prison sentence and ordered to pay US$240,000 in damages to the US Government.

Faur is currently appealing the fine on the grounds that the US Government did not provide sufficient evidence of the monetary damages for which it claimed he was responsible.

This article originally appeared at scmagazineus.com