Man Charged with Hacking USC Network

A more than 25-year-old man has been charged with hacking into the University of Southern Californias computer system and access to information for students applicants.

Criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday charges Eric Li Makati San Diego and transmitting the code or command to intentionally damage school students on the Internet application system, federal authorities said. He could face up to 10 years in prison.

Makati, the computer network administrator, allegedly earned money pursuing "penetration testing" to simulate malicious attacks on computer networks.

Last June, prosecutors said that he was blazing new, a USC database, which contains records on more than 275,000 applicants since 1997, the province, passwords, and social security numbers for seven applicants on his home computer.

He then allegedly reported the computer attack a Web site, securityfocus.com, using e-mail accounts "ihackeduscgmail.com" web site later told USC officials of the security flaw.

It is not clear whether the Makati retained a lawyer. A woman claiming to be McCartys mother was surprised to learn that the situation said that her son had cooperated with the authorities last year, even by some of his equipment back after federal investigators inspection.

"My son certainly showed a lot of good will" anneliese McCarty said in a telephone interview. "He did not steal anything, he just tried to point out a problem in the system." But authorities say, Makati offensive has not done so in cooperation with USC, and he responded with a Web site, rather than school officials.

"Our belief is that he knows that this is an inappropriate way to test the safety of a person and obviously, this is the computer invasion" that is willing to identify in an FBI supervisory special agent.

Makati, they did not take into account custody, scheduled to appear April 28 in federal court in Los Angeles.