3 charged with Internet hacking

Associated Press

SPOKANE — Three Spokane men have been charged with illegally hacking Internet business sites and stealing 2,700 credit card numbers and other information.

One of the defendants also is charged with altering and forcing the shutdown of the Web site of the Washington, D.C., mass transit system in May 2000.

Brent Justin Woodfield, 20; Erik Ray Thompson, 21; and Sean Richard Shelton, 21, were arrested Wednesday by FBI agents in Spokane.

The three were released without bond after court appearances Thursday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno ordered them to surrender their computers and not use the Internet as conditions of their release, pending trial next year.

Woodfield, a former computer network security analyst for the Spokane Public Schools, is charged in a two-count indictment with computer intrusion and possession of credit card information.

Thompson, who operated his own search engine on the Internet, and Shelton, an unemployed laborer, are charged with single counts of possessing credit card information.

Computer intrusion carries a maximum five-year prison term. Conviction on the credit card charge has a 10-year maximum, and both allow fines of up to $250,000.

"We believe they hacked into hundreds of Web sites and illegally obtained these 2,700 credit card numbers," Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice said. "They obtained card numbers, expiration dates, personal names and addresses, everything you need to order by credit card on the Internet."

Authorities have no evidence the three used the credit card numbers.

FBI agents have randomly contacted some of the credit card holders, but most can’t remember or identify the Web sites where they used their cards, Rice said.

The federal prosecutor said it may be impossible to identify the Web sites targeted by the Spokane hackers.

The FBI, using its forensic computer experts, has been investigating the Washington, D.C., hacking case for 20 months, court records say. The case was presented to a federal grand jury on Tuesday, and the indictments were returned.

The hacking of the Web site of the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) occurred on May 29, 2000. It temporarily shut down the Web site, used by 1.8 million people a year for schedule information and ticket sales.

A hacker replaced transit information in the nation’s capital with profanity-laced protests of lawsuits brought against the company Napster to stop free downloading of music.

"It was full of profanity," Metro spokesman Cheryl Johnson said. "It looked like an invective against the Napster lawsuits, but I remember having a hard time figuring out what they were trying to say."

The transit system operates the subway and mass transit system in the nation’s capital.

Agents obtained a grand jury subpoena requiring the Internet service provider ExciteAtHome to produce business records listing the subscriber tied to the suspected Internet protocol address.

The information led to the north Spokane apartment of Woodfield last January.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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