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LOVELL WHITE DURRANT: Richard Pryce fined GBP 1,200 for offences under the computer misuse act 1990

Mr Bartle, a magistrate at Bow Street Magistrates Court, today accepted Richard Pryce’s plea of guilty
in respect of 12 offences of gaining unauthorised access to computer systems under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 when, aged 16, he “hacked” into computer systems in the United States of America, including those of the US Air Force, from a personal computer installed at his home. Following a plea in mitigation which stressed that Richard had been motivated by the curiosity of a teenager, had since been punished by substantial disruption to his career over a three year period and was of good character, the magistrate fined him GBP 1,200. Mr Pryce was represented by international law firm Lovell White Durrant.

The charges against Richard Pryce Richard was arrested at his parents’ home on 12 May
1994, when he was 16, by members of the Computer Crime Unit of New Scotland Yard, who were executing a search warrant. He had been traced by the US authorities to England after an informant provided them with a copy of an on-line conversation which had occurred several months earlier in which Richard disclosed that he was 16, from England and interested in US military systems. He had also provided the informant with his home telephone number. Following his arrest, Richard was released the same day on police bail. On 7 June 1995 – some 13 months after his original arrest, by which time he was in the middle of his A-level exams – he was charged at Holborn police station with 12 offences under Section 1(1) of the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Three of these charges were later dropped and three more inserted in their place. On 19 June 1996 Richard was charged with two offences of conspiracy to commit an offence under Sections 1 and 3 of the same Act – charges which were withdrawn on 14 March 1997 after an abuse of process application was commenced by the defence. Despite implying that they would charge him with other offences under Section 3, the Prosecution eventually decided to proceed solely in respect of the revised set of 12 offences under Section 1(1).

The plea in mitigation The Defendant’s legal team stressed three points in the plea in mitigation made on his behalf.

First, Richard was not motivated by malice or by a desire for financial gain, and did not erase or alter
data on the computer systems or disclose any sensitive information.

His actions were motivated by the curiosity of a bright 16 year old who was not a sophisticated
computer user; he exploited vulnerabilities of the computer systems using information and methods to
gain access to insecure systems which were widely known and available.

Second, instead of being charged in a juvenile court, where he would have been dealt with speedily and with little publicity, Richard had suffered very public disruption to his career over a period of three
years. He had been punished severely already, through the repeated hearings and frequent alteration of the charges against him, extensive media and public interest in him and the case, and confiscation of equipment and material being used for his A-level studies.

Third, he had received excellent character references, had no previous convictions and had co-
operated with the police throughout.

The sentence After hearing the evidence, Mr Bartle accepted Richard’s plea of guilty. He rejected the option of a custodial sentence, on the grounds that it would be excessive in the light of the offences committed. He also rejected the option of a Community Service Order, on the grounds that it would have interfered unfairly with his music studies. Instead, the magistrate opted for a fine, at GBP 1,200 set at a level which takes account of Richard’s financial circumstances as a student (notably the fact that he receives a means-tested local authority grant). He also ordered him to pay GBP 250 towards costs.

Mr Pryce was represented in Court by Mr Martin Hicks, lead by Mr Geoffrey Robertson QC. Mr Geoffrey
Robertson, QC said: “The sentence handed down in this case should not be
misconstrued or interpreted in a way that suggests that the Courts do not take “hacking”, and its
effect, very seriously indeed. The particular combination of circumstances – the age of the
defendant, the delays in the prosecution process and the co-operation given by Richard – all contributed to the sentence which, in the circumstance, is just and fair. However, it should also be said that the case against Richard has been blown out of all proportion by the police, politicians (particularly in the United States) and the media, for reasons which have nothing to do with the facts of the case.

We are pleased that the magistrate saw reason and accepted our plea in mitigation. Richard has already paid heavily for what was, in effect, a schoolboy prank. It was not his fault that security systems in the computing and defense industries left something to be desired.

Mrs Pryce, Richard’s mother, said: On behalf of my son and the family as a whole, I would just like to say that we are relieved this is all over and very much hope that Richard will now be allowed to get on with his studies at the Royal College of Music. He has had a very tough time for nearly three years – despite accepting his guilt for the offences with which he was finally charged and his willingness to co-operate with the police – and would now like to put it all behind him.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Richard Pryce
Richard Charles Vaughan Pryce was born on 26 May 1977. He lives with his parents, Nick and Alison, and his two sisters, Sally (aged 17) and Katie (aged 15) in Kingsbury, North London. His father and mother run their own business restoring musical instruments.

In September 1995, Richard started his studies at the Royal College of Music, where he has been awarded a scholarship following auditions at the Royal College.

He is an accomplished double bass player: he was the youngest member of the Brittan Pears orchestra and has toured in the UK and Europe with other orchestras.

At the time the offences were committed, Richard was
a pupil at Purcell School, Harrow in Middlesex. He
took his A-levels in 1995 (receiving an A in music
and a D in computer science).

The Computer Misuse Act 1990
Under Section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, it
is a criminal offence to cause a computer to perform
any function with a view to securing unauthorised
access, knowing at the time that that is the case.
The maximum sentence for an adult on conviction is
six months imprisonment or a fine not exceeding GBP
5,000 or both.

Under Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, it
is a criminal offence to do any act which causes
unauthorised modification of the contents of a
computer with intent to impair its operation, prevent
or hinder access to a program or data, or to impair
the operation of a program or the reliability of any
data. Where the matter is dealt with in the
Magistrates’ Court, the maximum sentence for an adult
on conviction is six months imprisonment or a fine
not exceeding GBP 5,000 or both. Where the matter is
tried on indictment in the Crown Court, the maximum
sentence for an adult on conviction is five years
imprisonment or a fine (unlimited) or both

CONTACT: Fenella Gentleman, marketing communications
manager, Lovell White Durrant
Tel: +44 (0)171 236 0066
e-mail: fenella.gentleman@lovellwhitedurrant.com
WWW: http://www.lovellwhitedurrant.com

*M2 COMMUNICATIONS DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY FOR
INFORMATION PROVIDED WITHIN M2 PRESSWIRE. DATA
SUPPLIED BY NAMED PARTY/PARTIES.*

Copyright ? 1997 M2 Communications, Ltd., All Rights Reserved.

LOVELL WHITE DURRANT: Richard Pryce fined GBP 1,200 for offences under the computer misuse act 1990., M2 PressWIRE, 03-24-1997.

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22 Mar 97 British teenager fined after hacking into US defence system:
His lawyer says RICHARD PRYCE used information he learned on the Internet to gain access.

By JASON BENNETTO LONDON

LONDON – A British teenager who barely passed computer science was fined Friday for hacking into United States defence and missile systems and removing files on artificial intelligence and battle management.

RICHARD PRYCE was only 16 when he used a basic dollars 1,650 computer from his bedroom in north London to infiltrate some of America’s top security establishments.

Codenamed Datastream Cowboy, PRYCE, now 18, was the subject of allegations in the US Senate, where the unknown ‘spy’ was accused of ‘causing more harm than the KGB.’

He has also been described as ‘the number one threat to US security.’ But his lawyer insisted Friday it was a ‘schoolboy prank’ and that the teenager with just six months experience had used information taken off the Internet to break into the US networks.

Lawyers believe the case shows the extraordinary lax security deployed within US military systems.

PRYCE was fined dollars 3,200 after pleading guilty to 12 charges of gaining unauthorized access to computer systems in March and April 1994.
He has now dropped his interest in computers in favor of a double bass that he studies at the Royal College of Music in London.

The first that Pryce’s parents, Nick and Alison, knew of their son’s activities was when members of Scotland Yard’s Computer Crime Unit arrived at the home in Colindale to arrest him.
Bow Street Magistrates’ Court heard that PRYCE managed to hack into the Griffiss Air Force Base in New York.

It is alleged he downloaded material from the air force base about artificial intelligence and battlefield management systems.
He also broke into the Lockheed Space and Missile Company in California. The systems he was said to have obtained access to included those for ballistic weapons research and aircraft design, payroll, procurement, personnel records and electronic mail.

Pryce’s forays led to allegations that a spy had managed to infiltrate secret intelligence data.
His hacking was described as an example of a growing and serious threat to US national security in reports and testimony to a Senate committee by the US General Accounting Office.

Some of the more outlandish allegations about the effects of Pryce’s hacking exploits were later seen as an attempt to obtain extra funding. Indeed, US officials later insisted PRYCE had been unable to access any secret information.

Despite these claims it is understood that the British authorities were considering using a Public Immunity Certificate, a gagging order, to cover part of the hearing, but decided not to bother after the more serious charges were dropped.

Defence lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said that what the Pentagon had at first suspected was a European spy-ring was later
discovered to be the teenaged Londoner.

‘He was riding, rather than surfing, the Internet.
‘He made no profit and there was no subversion of defence systems,’ he said.
His lawyer says RICHARD PRYCE used information he learned on the Internet to gain access.

The Vancouver Sun Page A10
FINAL Copyright (C) The Vancouver Sun 1994-1997

Hackers pillaged US files to sell secrets to Saddam
By Tim Reid

HUNDREDS of military secrets, including troop movements and missile capability, were stolen from American government computers and offered to Saddam Hussein during the Gulf war, a former US security expert has admitted.

Computer hackers in the Netherlands used the Internet to steal enough top-secret information potentially to change the course of the war. Luckily for the Allies, the Iraqis ignored the data, probably fearing a hoax, according to intelligence experts.

Dr Eugene Schultz, former head of computer security at the US Department of Energy, has disclosed for the first time how he and colleagues sat helpless as the Dutch hackers pillaged the files across 34 US military sites in the months leading up to the 1991 conflict.

His revelations, to be screened on BBC 2’s Sci Files programme tomorrow, come after the conviction on Friday of a London Teenager for gaining unauthorised access to American defence and missile secrets. Using equipment that cost £750 from local shops, Richard Pryce, 19, broke into computer files of the US Air Force and the Lockheed aerospace company. US military intelligence officials claimed he had caused “more harm than the KGB”. Pryce, of Colindale, north London, who was 16 at the time, was fined £1,200.

Dr Schultz, who was also responsible for protecting the computers of US nuclear weapons sites, told the BBC that the Americans learnt for certain in October 1990 that the information was being offered to Baghdad. Working with the FBI, he pinpointed the source of the attacks to Eindhoven.

The leakage of data was certainly alarming. The Dutch hackers learnt about the exact locations of US troops and the types of weapons they had. They gained information about the Patriot missile’s capability and the movement of American warships in the region.

“We realised that these files should not have been stored on Internet-capable machines,” Dr Schultz said. “They related to our military systems, they related to Operation Desert Shield at the time, and later Operation Desert Storm. This was a huge mistake.”

Once the Dutch hackers had gained access to a military computer site, they simply kept guessing different passwords until the system let them in. Once inside, they could pick and choose the exact information they wanted. The attacks lasted for months.

“We couldn’t do anything about it,” Dr Schultz said. “If we had shut down one machine that they had been getting into, they would have found others to launch the attacks from.”

The full story of Iraqi involvement in this episode is still classified. The CIA will neither confirm nor deny that the hackers tried to sell military secrets to Iraq.

Datastream Cowboy returns to bass

THE teenage hacker who was fined for breaking into secret US Air Force systems yesterday claimed he had turned his back on computing and that “it was just a phase”.

Richard Pryce, 19, a student at the Royal College of Music, intends to pursue a career as a professional musician with his double bass.

Pryce, who was known as the “Datastream Cowboy” by fellow hackers, said yesterday: “I’m not going back to my old ways. I have put that behind me. It was just a phase I was going through. Now I would like to be a professional musician.”

He said that even if computer firms offered him high-profile jobs he would not accept them. Instead he is trying to work out how to pay the £1,200 fine and £250 costs after he admitted 12 charges of gaining unauthorised access to US military computers, at Bow Street Magistrates on Thursday.

‘Datastream Cowboy’, 19, fined £1,200 for hacking secret US computer systems
By David Graves

A TEENAGE computer hacker known on the Internet as the “Datastream Cowboy,” who US military intelligence officials claimed had caused more harm than the KGB, was fined £1,200 yesterday for gaining unauthorised access to secret US Air Force computer systems.

The US Senate armed services committee was told later that the Royal College of Music student was “the number one threat to US security”.

Geoffrey Robertson, QC, defending, told Bow Street magistrates that the Pentagon had expected to find an East European spy ring responsible for the 200 security breaches, not an A-level student with a £750 personal computer in his bedroom.

Mr Roberston said Pryce had been guilty of “a schoolboy prank” and could not be blamed for the fact that security systems in the US military files “left something to be desired”. He downloaded scores of secret files, including details of the research and development of ballistic missiles.

Pryce, of Colindale, north London, admitted 12 specimen offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and was ordered to pay £250 costs.