No no no. He is a nerd. Nerds do shit like this, because they can't help it. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did the same kind of stupid shit when they were in college.
I am a nerd also, but not nearly at that guy???s level, but I also did stupid shit, just to see if I could pull it off. I remember using SQL injection attacks to break into porn sites and give free user/passes to my friends back in high school. I broke into the schools homework exercise program and changed the names of all the teachers teaching each class, then changed the passwords so they couldn't log in and change them back.
It was childish and stupid, but it provided me with the single greatest thrill of my teenage life to break into databases for which I had no business being in.
I hated two of my teachers, because I knew I was smarter than they were, and they gave me so much shit. One of the teachers that I hated had really fucked up teeth. I renamed the class he taught from sociology to Dental Hygiene 101.
The best part was they all knew it was me, because I was the only one who could have figured out how to do it, but they couldn???t prove shit so the principle let me go.
I feel bad for that guy; he is going to get fucked up badly for breaking national security, but I believe it is an outright lie regarding the amount of supposed damage he did. I think he made them realize that they needed $700,000.00 worth of upgrades to keep their system secure, but if a need form the UL can do it, I know for a fucking fact that the real terrorist could do it. The US government should not only thank him for what he did, but employer him as a whit box security tester for the CIA. But, that would be too much of an intelligent observation for our government.