Lag gets 18 months for hacking prison computer

A PRISONER had 18 months added onto his sentence after he hacked into the prison's computer.

Francis "Frank" Janosko, 44, was sentenced Tuesday in Federal court in Boston for abusing a computer provided by the Plymouth County Correctional Facility.

The computer was set up at the jail to help inmates do legal research. In 2006, Janosko managed to get around security controls and use the machine to send email and access data on more than 1,100 County prison employees. He found data such as dates of birth, Social Security Numbers, telephone numbers, home addresses and employment records.

Ironically the computer was one of those so called super secure thin-clients which are touted as a way of making sure this sort of thing doesn't happen. The only program it was supposed to run was the prison's legal research application, but Janosko found a way of "exploiting an idiosyncrasy in the legal research software" so he could run other programs through the terminal.

Prosecutors said Janosko was also able to download "Internet video", which we are sure made his stay a bit more enjoyable.

After he finishes his latest prison sentence, Janosko will serve three years of supervised release, during which he is prohibited from using any Internet-connected devices without the approval of his probation officer. µ