A 20-year-old California man has been charged with hacking government computers, including two agencies within the Defence Department, and defacing government Web sites, the US Attorney`s office said on Friday.
Robert Lyttle, of Pleasant Hill, California, was indicted on Thursday by a federal grand jury for hacking government computers in April 2002, the US Attorney`s Office in Northern California said.
Lyttle is accused of unlawfully accessing computer systems of the Department of Defence`s Defence Logistic Information Service and Office of Health Affairs and NASA`s Ames Research Centre.
The charges against Lyttle carry penalties that include prison time of up 10 years and fines of up to $250 000, the US attorney`s office said.
Lyttle is scheduled to appear before a US magistrate judge in Oakland on 19 July to be arraigned on the charges.
Lyttle could not be reached for comment.
The prosecution is being overseen by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property unit of the US Attorney`s Office and is the result of an investigation by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Defence Criminal Investigative Service and NASA`s Office of Inspector General.
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