MIT Computer Hacker Faces Charges

BrocktonPost
BOSTON--A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday has charged a Cambridge man with
computer intrusion, fraud, and data theft in computer hacking incidents that targeted the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and JSTOR, a not-for-profit archive of scientific journals and academic work.
Aaron Swartz, 24, was charged in an indictment with wire fraud, computer fraud,
unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and recklessly damaging a
protected computer.
The indictment alleges Swartz illegally accessed and distributed more than 4 million scientific works from JSTOR.
If convicted on these charges, SWARTZ faces up to 35 years in prison, to
be followed by three years of supervised release, restitution, forfeiture and a fine of up to $1 million.
“Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars. It is equally harmful to the victim whether you sell what you have stolen or give it away,” said U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz in a prepared statement.
The indictment alleges between September 24, 2010, and January 6, 2011, Swartz
contrived to break into a restricted computer wiring closet in a basement at MIT and to access
MIT’s network without authorization from a computer switch within that closet.
He is charged with doing this in order to download a major portion of JSTOR’s archive of digitized academic journal articles onto his computers and hard drives.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization that has invested heavily in providing an online system for archiving, accessing, and searching digitized copies of over 1,000 academic journals.
It is alleged that Swartz avoided MIT’s and JSTOR’s security efforts in order to distribute a significant proportion of JSTOR’s archive through one or more file-sharing sites.
The indictment alleges that Swartz’s repeated automatic downloads impaired JSTOR’s
computers, brought down some of its servers, and deprived various computers at MIT from accessing JSTOR’s research.
Even after JSTOR and MIT worked to block Swartz’s computers, Swartz allegedly returned with new methods for accessing JSTOR and downloading articles.
The indictment alleges that Swartz exploited MIT’s computer system to steal over four
million articles from JSTOR, even though Swartz was not affiliated with MIT as a student,faculty member, or employee.
In fact, during these events, Swartz was allegedly a fellow at a Boston-area university, through which he could have accessed JSTOR’s services and archive for legitimate research.
At this time, the government is unaware of any personal identifying information having been stolen from JSTOR as a result of SWARTZ’s alleged actions.