[January 16, 2006] Spaniard arrested for hacking U.S. Department of Defense computer Tweet (EFE News Service Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Spanish authorities have arrested a computer hacker for breaking into a U.S. Defense Department computer via the Internet. The arrest was made by members of the Civil Guard militarized police force in Malaga on the southern coast of Spain. According to the Civil Guard, the break-in by the Spanish hacker has been found to seriously imperil both the operations and the security of a dry dock used for nuclear-submarine maintenance. As a result of the raid, the Civil Guard also uncovered the existence of a group dedicated to computer piracy that has endangered the security of more than 100 computer systems. The computer hacked into by the arrested man was located at the Point Loma U.S. Navy base in San Diego, California. The operation to nab the hacker was begun when Navy cyber-security specialists detected the illegal entry into the computer, which they reported to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The naval security experts found that the breach had been made from a computer in Spain and they informed the Civil Guard's cyber-terrorism unit via the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. Besides the arrest of one Malaga resident, the alleged hacker, four other persons elsewhere in Spain were also identified and questioned on the matter as witnesses, as well as for their supposed links to the hacking operation. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]