A Mission Viejo man has pleaded guilty to hacking into NASA computers and using stolen credit card numbers to purchase electronic equipment, United States Attorney Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced today.

           Jason Allen Diekman, 20, pleaded guilty yesterday before United States District Judge Dean D. Pregerson to one misdemeanor count of intentional unauthorized access of a government computer and one felony count of knowingly transmitting a program, code and command which recklessly caused damage to a computer. He also pleaded guilty to a felony charge of unauthorized use of a credit card.
 
           According to Assistant United States Attorney Arif Alikhan, Diekman illegally accessed government computers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, NASA computers at Stanford University, and numerous other government and university computer systems. Diekman, who for the past two years used the nicknames “Shadow Knight” and “Dark Lord,” gained unauthorized “root-level” access to at least three computer systems at JPL. This hacking activity gave him control over all aspects of the computers, including the ability to modify files and alter security on the systems.
 
           The NASA computer systems at Stanford were used to develop sensitive satellite flight control software used to control NASA satellites. As part of his guilty plea, Diekman admitted that he caused $17,000 in damage to these computers.
 
           Federal agents discovered evidence on Diekman’s computers indicating that he intercepted usernames and passwords from universities, including Harvard University in Massachusetts. In a statement he made to investigators, Diekman admitted that he has hacked into “hundreds, maybe thousands” of computers, including systems at JPL, Stanford, Harvard, Cornell University, the California State University at Fullerton, and University of California campuses in Los Angeles and San Diego.
 
           In addition to the two charges related to his hacking activities, Diekman  pleaded guilty to one count of using unauthorized access devices – in this case a credit card number he used to make unauthorized purchases. Diekman admitted that he caused approximately $6,000 in losses when he used the credit card number to purchase electronic equipment.
 
           Diekman, who is being held in federal custody, is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Pregerson on February 5. At that time, he faces a maximum possible penalty of 16 years in federal prison.
This case was investigated by special agents with NASA’s Office of Inspector General, who received assistance from special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, San Francisco Field Office.

 Release No. 00-197