Watch CBS News

Texas Man Sentenced For Hacking Of NASA, Business

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A Texas man has been sentenced for hacking into the computer systems of a Minnesota company and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Jeremey Parker, 26, of Houston was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison on one count of wire fraud.

Parker acknowledged that from December 2008 through October 2009 he hacked into the computer networks of a subsidiary of Eden Prairie-based Digital River and stole about $275,000.

He also admitted that in September 2009, he hacked into two NASA computers that supported oceanographic data being sent back to Earth from satellites. Researchers paid a fee to access the data, but prosecutors say when Parker hacked into the servers, he made the data freely available.

NASA spent about $66,400 to repair the damage.

Parker was not officially charged in the NASA incident.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.