An 18-year-old Carmiel computer genius was formally charged last week with illegally tapping into secret U.S. Army computer memory banks.
The youth’s entry into the Pentagon computer reportedly allowed him access to military secrets during the Persian Gulf War.
The unidentified teen-ager was also charged Sept. 5 with organizing and participating in international credit card forgeries.
Local police in Galilee were led to the suspect by police in the United States and Canada, who had been investigating the theft of thousands of dollars’ worth of goods and services by the illegal use of Visa credit card numbers obtained from a contact in Israel.
Computer hackers in North America, arrested after yearlong buying sprees, said their Visa-related information came from Carmiel. But a check of the records of Bezek, the Israeli telephone corporation, showed no calls to the United States or Canada placed by the teen-ager.
However, a search of his room uncovered sophisticated electronic and computer equipment and software he had built and written himself, which enabled him to penetrate bank, U.S. Army and other secret computer codes.
His equipment allowed him to bypass the Bezek exchange switchboard meters while making international calls.
The youth has been released on bail.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
