A hacker tracks his own investigator

IHT - NYT: "A hacker broke into the U.S. wireless network of the German cellphone operator T-Mobile over at least seven months and read e-mail messages and personal computer files of hundreds of customers, including the Secret Service agent investigating the hacker, the government has said. The hacker obtained an internal Secret Service memorandum and part of a mutual assistance legal treaty from Russia. The documents contained "highly sensitive information" about ongoing criminal cases, according to court records.

The break-in targeted T-Mobile USA's network of 16.3 million customers. It was discovered during a broad Secret Service investigation, "Operation Firewall," which targeted underground hacker organizations known as Shadowcrew, Carderplanet and Darkprofits. Nicolas Lee Jacobsen, 21, of Santa Ana, California, a computer engineer, has been charged with the break-in in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Investigators said that they traced the hacker's online activities to a hotel near Buffalo, New York, where Jacobsen was staying.

Jacobsen, who was arrested in October in California, has been released on a $25,000 bond posted by his uncle, who was ordered to keep his own computer locked up so Jacobsen could not use it. The hacker was able to view the names and Social Security numbers of 400 customers, all of whom were notified in writing about the break-in, T-Mobile said. It said customer credit card numbers and other financial information never were revealed."