On July 31, 2002, federal police officers with the Guardia di Finanza,
Milan, Italy, served search warrants and arrested 14 members of the
“Reservoir Dogs” hacking crew. The arrests were the result of a 10-
month joint investigation that started with the compromise of a US Army
computer at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and two computer systems at
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.
Special Agents with the US Army Criminal Investigation Command,
Computer Crime Investigative Unit (CCIU) received the initial complaint
in October 2001. The CCIU traced the intrusion through several
intermediary computers to its source in Italy. Through recovery and
examination of the compromised computers, CCIU was able to determine
that the computers had been hacked by a member of the “Reservoir Dogs”
hacking crew. CCIU also found evidence of several more compromised
computers including one computer at JPL. This information was passed
through the United States Secret Service Liaison Officer in Milan to
the Italian authorities.
CCIU reported to the NASA Office of Inspector General’s Computer and
Technology Crimes Office (CTCO) that the hacker was using the JPL
system to chat on the Internet. Further investigation by CTCO revealed
that two JPL computer systems had been compromised by the Reservoir
Dogs hacking crew in October 2001 from computer systems in Italy.
Guardia di Finanza, in cooperation with Special Agents from the US Army
Criminal Investigation Command, the NASA Office of Inspector General’s
CTCO, the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the US Secret
Service, launched an exhaustive investigation into the activities of
the entire crew which resulted in the identification of all of its
known members. The identities of the hackers are withheld pending
indictment.
For more information on this release, please contact Paul Shawcross,
Executive Officer, NASA Office of Inspector General, at (202) 358-2558.
