Hacker Enters Guilty Plea in Theft of Computer Data

Federal prosecutors in two states jointly announced Friday that a computer consultant had pleaded guilty in Baltimore to federal felony charges that he had misappropriated AT&T; computer programs and computer access programs between 1988 and 1990.

Under the plea agreements, Leonard Rose of Libertyville, Ill., whose computer name is “Terminus,” will serve a year in prison.

Rose, 32, was charged in a five-count indictment in Baltimore in May, 1990, alleging that he and other computer hackers schemed to steal source codes for AT&T;’s widely used UNIX program.

He was also charged with distributing to other hackers so-called “Trojan horse” programs designed to gain unauthorized access to computer systems.

Rose pleaded guilty to wire fraud in Maryland and Illinois.

The Rose case had been closely watched in computer circles. The Baltimore indictment asserted that he was associated with a group of computer hackers known as the “Legion of Doom.”

Three months before his indictment, the Secret Service seized much of his computer equipment during a search of his house, which was then in Middletown, Md., as part of a massive federal hacker investigation.