On November 6, 2000, Jason Allen Diekman (Shadow Knight), Mission
Viejo, CA, appeared before United States District Judge Dean Pregerson,
Central District of California, and pled guilty to recklessly causing
damage to a protected system, unauthorized access of a nonpublic
computer, and unauthorized use of an access device. Diekman had been
previously charged in a criminal information for gaining unauthorized
access to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration computer
systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, and Stanford
University in Palo Alto, CA.
The criminal information, filed on October 25, 2000, alleges that
Diekman used credit cards to make over $6,000 in unauthorized
purchases, and caused over $17,000 in damages to NASA computer systems
at Stanford. As a result of the plea, Diekman faces a maximum sentence
of 16 years imprisonment, a fine of $600,000, and a 3-year term of
supervised release. Sentencing is set for February 5, 2001.
Special Agents from the NASA Office of Inspector General, Computer
Crimes Division, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the
investigation. The prosecution was conducted by Assistant United
States Attorney Arif Alikhan, Central District of California.
For more information on this release, please call Samuel Maxey,
Assistant Inspector General for Investigations at (202) 358-2580.
