Romanian who hacked NASA spared cooler stint

If you can't do the time, well, do the crime anyway

A Romanian hacker who admitted breaking into NASA's network has avoided jail, receiving a three-year suspended prison sentence instead.

Robert Butyka, 26, from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, still faces a civil lawsuit over disputed damages of $500,000 against the space agency's computer systems in a case due to be heard in March. Butyka, who was arrested by Romanian cyber-cops back in November, admitted hacking into NASA's network in December 2010 at a hearing earlier this month prior to a sentencing hearing this week where he was put on probation for seven years.

Local reports of the sentencing hearing (in Romanian) can be found here. Commentary on the arguably lenient punishment received by Butyka, and how a how US hacker convicted of similar charges might fare, can be found in post of Sophos' Naked Security blog here. ®