Orange County, California Computer Hacker Pleads Guilty to Hacking University Computers,
Defrauding Western Union

A Mission Viejo man pleaded guilty this morning to federal charges of hacking into computers at Oregon State University and using stolen credit card numbers in an attempt to wire transfer money through the Western Union Corporation.

Jason Allen Diekman, 20, pleaded guilty this morning in federal court in Los Angeles to one count of obtaining information from a protected computer and one count of wire fraud.

Today’s guilty plea represents the second time Diekman has pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in Los Angeles. Diekman was arrested in relation to this second case on April 18 while he was free on a $100,000 bond after pleading guilty last November to charges of hacking into NASA computers and using stolen credit card numbers to purchase electronic equipment. In that earlier case, Diekman pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of intentional unauthorized access of a government computer; one felony count of knowingly transmitting a program, code and command which recklessly caused damage to a computer; and one felony charge of unauthorized use of a credit card to obtain approximately $6,000 in electronic equipment.

According to statements made in court today, as well as a criminal complaint filed in April after his second arrest, Diekman used his personal computer at home to gain unauthorized access to computers at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. Diekman hacked into the university’s computers 33 times from February through April of this year. Diekman used the account of an OSU student to gain access to the school’s computer system, where he stored computer programs to control Internet Relay Chat channels on the Internet.

Today Diekman also pleaded guilty to a wire fraud charge after individuals affiliated with him attempted to make three wire transfers through Western Union. In all three cases, a person telephoned Western Union and requested that money be transferred to Jason Diekman of Orange County, California. In only one of the three transfers did the issuing credit card company initiate the transfer process, and that transfer was halted by Western Union security personnel.

Diekman was caught in the fraud against Western Union as a result of an internal investigation by AT&T into the theft of its services. After security personnel from AT&T reviewed recordings of telephone conversations in which the callers discussed defrauding Western Union, tapes of these conversations were turned over to the FBI. On the tapes, Diekman – who was using an alias he has used in the past and who was identified by an FBI agent familiar with his voice – is heard discussing with other people the possibility of obtaining fraudulent wire transfers from Western Union. In court this morning, Diekman admitted that as part of the wire fraud scheme he fraudulently obtained more than 8,000 minutes of long-distance services from AT&T.

In court today, Diekman acknowledged that he has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges filed in San Jose in a third federal criminal case against him. In that case, Diekman is charged with hacking into Bay Area Internet Solutions, Inc., an Internet service provider in San Jose. Diekman and others gained unauthorized "root-level access," which gave them complete control of the compromised computer systems and allowed them to obtain copies of various company databases that contained account information and passwords. Diekman and others also used the company’s computer systems to store computer exploits and caused at least $50,000 in damages due to costs associated with investigating the intrusion and re-securing the systems. Diekman is expected to plead guilty to the computer hacking charge in this third case at a future court appearance in Los Angeles.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Arif Alikhan, a Los Angeles-based prosecutor who specializes in computer-related and high-tech cases, Diekman pleaded guilty last year to illegally accessing 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 had 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.

Diekman is currently being held without bond in a federal jail. He is scheduled to be sentenced in both the NASA hacking case and the charges to which he pleaded guilty today on October 15 at 2:30. When he is sentenced by United States District Judge Dean D. Pregerson, Diekman faces a maximum possible penalty of 41 years in federal prison for his convictions in both cases.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles Field Office, which was assisted by the San Francisco Field Office.

CONTACT: Assistant United States Attorney Arif Alikhan
Computer and Telecommunications Coordinator
(213) 894-2476

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