Inside Job: US Navy sailor hacked government computers, released secret records

A Sailor of the US Navy has hacked the Government computers and has released some secret records: Feds

In 2012, we reported that US NAVY faces110,000 cyber attacks every hour. Now Nicholas Paul Knight, who was working as a system administrator in the nuclear capable air craft carrier (the USS Harry S. Truman) has done something unexpected.

The guy has been alleged to have led a group of Digi7al hackers into about 30 computer systems for leaking private information. Daniel Trenton Kruger and Knight are now both defending charges of federal conspiracy.

Knight who is an enlisted system administrator at the US Navy Carrier has been alleged for leading a hackers group for stealing private government information and for sharing the information through Twitter. The 27 year old Virginian has been the administrator at the time the alleged hacked was carried out.

According to the authorities, the group which is named as Digi7al is accused to have penetrated in to the computer systems of more than 30 government organizations, reported by NY Daily.

According to a statement released by the Attorney’s office of the US, Knight himself broke into the Navy system known as the Smart Web Move Database and he did it because of boredom. The Pseudonym that the sailor used was “Nuclear Black Hat”, and he has been reported to have claimed that he has been fighting for the people of America and the government.

As per the documents, a hacker who goes with the pseudonym Black Hat carries out hacking for damaging the computer systems.
As per the authorities, another hacker has made a statement online that the hacker’s group was driven by a political motive to release the information and they also did it for fun.

Apart from being kicked off their work, the sailor’ team has been alleged to have released the private information of individuals for embarrassing them.

Assistant to the US attorney has said that it was quite natural for Digi7al to post additional evidence about the hack when some rival group claimed that they are the ones behind the hack.

The data base that has hacked contained information of about 220,000 individuals, and the information of about 20 off them was tweeted online. The information comprised of names, date of births, password reminders etc.

The breach was detected by the Naval Criminal Investigation service back in June. They have identified Knight and Kruger as prime suspects in the hack.

Kruger who has discharged by the Navy Authorities, has been alleged to have agreed with the authorities initially to cooperate and asked one off the members to delete the information. The other victims that investigators have identified include Library of Congress, Harvard University, World Health Organization and a US Agency.

According to the assistant of the US Attorney Office, authorities quickly notified and rendered monitoring services for identity theft to the victims, and they also formulated funds for mitigation response, damage assessment, and also a call center for the victims.

Kruger and Knight have been accused of the conspiracy to hack the computer systems for the purpose of stealing the identities, obstructing justice, and to damage the systems.

The Attorney Office assistant “Souders” said that “It’s very important to protect our military from cyber criminals”. He further said that “Cyber criminals operate in the shadows and think they can escape legal responsibility; they cannot.”

This is not the first time when US Navy computers have been hacked. Last year, computer of NSA’s new director and ex-US Navy Vice Adm. Michael Rogers had his computer hackedby Iranian hackers.