Intel 'hacker' has conviction expunged

FORMER INTEL contractor Randal Schwartz has had his conviction for hacking into his employer's computer security expunged.

Schwartz, who has written several books on Perl hacking was hauled before the beak for illegally bypassing Intel's computer security.

However it was fairly clear that Schwartz was only trying to point out to his employers that its senior managers were using passwords which could be easily guessed by hackers. Intel senior managers however took a dim view of their own stupidity being discussed in such a fashion and demanded that the book be thrown at Schwartz.

Schwartz was convicted and sentenced to several years' probation, fined of US$68,000, and left to pay about US$170,000 in personal legal bills.

Writing to Tech groups, Schwartz said that in October 2006, he applied for clemency again, with a Democratic governor who has already granted a few pardons. However since the case happened ten years ago he was able to apply for an expungement, rather than clemency. This means that from a legal perspective the incident never happened.

"It probably won't fully sink in until the first time I travel freely into Canada, or fill out an contractor form that asks the question about criminal history, or apply for a Small Business Administration program that was formerly unavailable to me," he wrote.