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AOL Hacker Pleads Guilty

Fraud conviction is first of its kind.

By Sari Kalin, PCWorld   

A hacker who developed illegal software to access America Online has pleaded guilty under a U.S. computer fraud law. Company officials called the conviction a %dquotlegal milestone.%dquot

Nicholas Ryan, a computer science student at Yale University, pleaded guilty to a felony under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He entered the plea on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. Sentencing will be in eight to nine weeks, said AOL spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg.

Ryan, known as Happy Hardcore, wrote software called AOL4FREE that allowed people to use AOL illegally, officials said. AOL detected the illegal activity in September 1995, gathered evidence, and contacted the Secret Service, which launched an investigation. AOL also upgraded its security to make sure that AOL4FREE or other similar programs no longer work, officials said.

This is the first successful conviction for computer fraud involving an Internet online network, Goldberg said.

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