On December 26, 2000, Mathew S. Lawrence, Connecticut, was charged
with violating Connecticut Public Act 99-160, Unauthorized Use of a
Computer, for allegedly hacking into a NASA computer and defacing a web
page.
In February 2000, Lawrence allegedly hacked into the web server for the
Office of Human Resources at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Maryland, and defaced its Internet web page. This resulted
in labor costs to rebuild the computer system and kept the web server
out of service for almost a month.
This investigation was conducted by Special Agents from the NASA Office
of Inspector General, Office of Criminal Investigations, Computer
Crimes Division and detectives from the Shelton Police Department. The
prosecution will be conducted by Paul O. Gaetano, Assistant State’s
Attorney, Shelton, Connecticut.
For more information on this release, please contact Steven J. Nesbitt,
Director of Operations, Computer Crimes Division at (202) 358-2576.
