Brit hacker, 25, pleads guilty to carrying out major hack attack on US military satellite phone system

A COMPUTER hacker is facing jail after he admitted breaking into a US military satellite phone system.

Sean Caffrey, 25, stole the military ranks, usernames and email addresses of more than 800 users of a satellite communications system and around 30,000 users of satellite phones.

The theft, which cost almost £500,000 to fix, took place on June 15, 2014.

Officers from the National Crime Agency's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) and West Midlands.

Police arrested Caffrey in March 2015 after intelligence showed the hack originated from his internet connection.

Forensic examination of his computers by NCA officers found the stolen data on the hard drives.

NCA officers also found that an online messaging account linked to the attack had been opened and operated under a pseudonym using Caffrey's computers.

The US Department of Defense said it cost approximately $628,000 to fix the damage caused by the hacker's intrusion.

Caffrey, of Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, admitted to an offence under the Computer Misuse Act during a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Janey Young, investigations manager at the NCA, said: "After strong partnership working between the NCA, the FBI and the DoD's Defense Criminal Investigative Service there was very clear, very compelling evidence against Sean Caffrey.

"No one should think that cyber crime is victimless or that they can get away with it.

"The NCA has people with skills like Caffrey's, but they're doing the opposite to him in detecting cyber criminals and bringing them to justice.

"We're working to keep the internet a safe space for people who use it legitimately."

Caffrey will be sentenced on August 14.