A local college student and a member of the U.S. Navy are accused of hacking into the computer systems of more than 30 public and private organizations, including the U.S. Navy and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
According to an indictment handed down by U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams Sr. in the Northern District of Oklahoma, 20-year-old Daniel Trenton Krueger of Salem, Illinois, and 27-year-old Nicholas Paul Knight of Chantilly, Virginia conspired to hack into computer systems to steal identities, obstruct justice, and damage a protected computer. Krueger was a student at an Illinois community college studying network administration.
Documents state the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) noticed a breach of the U.S. Navy’s Smart Web Move (SWM) database in June 2012. This database was used before the breach to manage transfers for 220,000 service members for all branches of the military and stored their personal records, social security numbers, names, and dates of birth. The servers for the records are located in Tulsa.
The hackers went by the alias “Team Digi7al” and posted links to the stolen information on their Twitter account.
Investigators say they identified two of the Team Digi7al hackers as Krueger and Knight. Authorities believe they hacked into the systems of more than 30 public and private organizations including:
– U.S. Navy
– U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
– U.S. Department of Homeland Security
– AT&T U-verse
– Autotrader.com
– Harvard University
– Johns Hopkins University
– Kawasaki
– Library of Congress
– Los Alamos National Laboratory
– Louisville University
– MeTV Network
– Montgomery (Alabama) Police Department
– Peruvian Ambassador’s email in Bolivia
– San Jose State University
– Stanford University
– Toronto (Canada) Police Service
– Ultimate Car Page
– University of Alabama
– University of British Columbia (Canada)
– University of Nebraska-Lincoln
– World Health Organization
Williams says in a news release that Knight was the self-proclaimed leader of Team Digi7al, and Krueger did the technical work because he was bored. The group allegedly posted online that they were “somewhat politically inclined to release their findings” but also did it because it was fun and they could
Before the hacking activities, Knight was an active duty enlisted Navy officer assigned to the USS Harry S. Truman as a systems administrator in the nuclear reactor department.
If convicted, Krueger and Knight each face up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
