[May 26, 2006]

Leaders of the hack: Pair of LI teens hatched bold plan to extort $150G from MySpace.com, prosecutors say

(Newsday (Melville, NY) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 26--They were considered among the most computer-literate of Connetquot High School's graduates last spring.

But since then, authorities say, Shaun Harrison and Saverio Mondelli haven't exactly taken the high-tech high road.

Freed yesterday from a Los Angeles jail, the two are accused of hacking through a popular social networking Web site's privacy safeguards, collecting users' personal information, and trying to extort $150,000 from the site.

The pair devised software - they called it MyFriendSpy - that allowed MySpace.com users to see the online identities of anyone who looked at their profiles, undermining the Web site's privacy guarantees, said Jeffrey McGrath, an assistant Los Angeles district attorney.

Harrison, 18, of Ronkonkoma, and Mondelli, 19, of Oakdale, were arrested in Los Angeles Friday when they stumbled into a cross-country Secret Service sting operation, authorities said. They traveled to Los Angeles in the expectation that they would collect the money from MySpace.com employees, McGrath said.

They each pleaded not guilty and face a court date next month on two felony counts of illegal computer access and one count of attempted extortion, authorities said. They were released on $35,000 bail each after agreeing to stay in Los Angeles, where MySpace is based, while the case is pending, McGrath said.

Despite the accusations, the two were held in high regard at Connetquot, district Superintendent Alan Groveman said.

Mondelli helped create a Web site for the Connetquot Model United Nations Club.

"They were wonderful kids when they were here, very talented, terrific, bright students," Groveman said yesterday. "We're impressed with their ability, but we're disappointed in how they allegedly used it."

The teens planned to expand their software so it could spy on any registered MySpace.com user, tracking visits from profile to profile or within a profile.

"You will be able to see who is checking out your friends," the two promised on one of their Web sites.

Through their sites, the pair provided the tools to get access to personal information posted on MySpace.com, including users' interests, the names of their pets and pictures of their children.

The district attorney declined to say whether registration information was compromised.

After MySpace detected the hackers' method and blocked them from using it, Harrison and Mondelli told the site operators that unless they paid them $150,000, they would release to the public a new, unbreakable computer code, McGrath said.

"MySpace.com is very aggressively trying to block this kind of thing. That's why they made a report to the police," McGrath said.

MySpace.com, owned by a News Corp. subsidiary, serves as an online diary and networking tool for more than 50 million users. MySpace spokesman Jeff Berman said the company was cooperating with the investigation. He declined further comment.

Several Web sites built late last year by the accused teens, including Medford-based MySpacePlus.com and SpyFuse.com, were still up and running yesterday. On the sites, the two teens refer to themselves as "Jack & Jake."

The sites still offer to sell subscriptions to a computer program allowing MySpace users to see the identities of anyone who views their Web page.

"We just wanted to apologize for missing our targeted release date. ... Approximately four hours before the scheduled release, we had an unexpected legal complication," the SpyFuse site says.

"We've gone ahead and bumped our tentative release date to this Friday, May 19th, 2006 at 8:00 PM EST," the site continues.

The subscription site also assures customers that its methods are unstoppable.

"Q: Can MySpace block this method?"

"A: No, MySpace does not have the ability to block this method as it does not take advantage of poor site structure like other trackers out right now do."

Harrison's family could not be reached for comment, and his attorney could not be reached. Mondelli's family declined to comment, and his attorney could not be reached.

Staff writer Wil Cruz contributed to this story.

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