A self-described male model and member of the notorious computer hacker group World of Hell pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to charges he broke into U.S. Air Force computer servers in Denver.

Rafael Nunez-Aponte, of Venezuela, bragged in online postings and messages about bringing down a Web-based server

I was thinking, "Gee, if a male model can get it in, it can't be all that hard."

And apparently it isn't. Military computers seem to have an open-door policy to hackers. John Innes of the Scotsman reports on a British hacker who is fighting extradition to the U.S.—

A BRITON accused of hacking into the US military computer system left a note on an army computer saying that the foreign policy of the United States "is akin to government-sponsored terrorism", a court heard yesterday.

Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon, 39, faces extradition to the US over claims that he accessed 97 government computers over a one-year period causing $700,000 (£370,000) worth of damage.
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His note continued: "It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11th last year ... I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels," the court was told.

One of the allegations relates to McKinnon deleting operating system files and logs from computers at US Naval Weapons Station Earle at a critical time following the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001, rendering the base's network of more than 300 computers inoperable. His ultimate goal was to gain access to the US military classified information network, the court heard.
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Mark Summers, for the US government, told the court: "During a period from February 2001 to March 2002, the defendant gained unauthorised access to 97 government computers. He was acting from his own computer in London.

"Via the internet, the defendant identified US government network computers with an open Microsoft Windows connection."

Mr Summers said McKinnon, having gained access to administrative accounts, installed unauthorised remote access and administration software named "remotely anywhere" that enabled him to remotely control and alter data on the US computers without detection.

McKinnon accessed 53 US army computers, 26 US navy computers, 16 NASA computers, one US defence department computer and one US air force computer. He is also accused of deleting files which shut down the entire US army's military district of Washington's network of more than 2,000 computers for 24 hours "significantly disrupting governmental function".

Interesting that the military was so unaware of or so unconcerned about the vulnerabilities of the Windows operating systems. It makes you wonder.