"Deceptive Duo" Partner Doing Hard Time

21-year-old Robert Lyttle, a Californian hacker who broke into the computer systems of federal agencies has been sentenced to four months in prison. Lyttle, who was part of a two man team called "The Deceptive Duo", was found guilty of unlawfully accessing computer systems of various federal agencies in April 2002. These systems included the Department of Defense's Defense Logistic Information Service (DLIS), Office of Health Affairs (OHA), National Aeronautic and Space Administration's (NASA) and Ames Research Center (ARC). Lyttle has claimed that he was trying to help these organizations improve their security, if only he had asked their permission first he might not be heading for the slammer now.

U.S. District Court Judge D. Lowell Jensen handed down the sentence following a guilty plea on five counts of unauthorized access to government computers. As well as the four month prison sentence, Lyttle will also have to spend a further four months electronically tagged in home confinement and pay $71,181 in restitution. He will also undergo a three year period of supervised release. The defendant will begin serving his sentence on August 24, 2005.

You may know him under his online handle "Pimpshiz". He is also known for defacing over 200 websites back in 2000 with pro-Napster graffiti messages. In 2002 Robert was raided by the FBI, on suspicion of being a member of the Deceptive Duo hacking group. He also ran the website Sub-Seven.com and was an "acquaintance" of mine at least online. I'm sorry to hear about his conviction, but really he had it coming to him and was easy to catch. For me, I can say it's good that these days I associate myself with more of the security side than hacking side of things.