Philip Gabriel Pettersson, known by the alias Stakkato, is a Swedish hacker and the alleged perpetrator of a worldwide

cyber attack A cyberattack (or cyber attack) occurs when there is an unauthorized action against computer infrastructure that compromises the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of its content. The rising dependence on increasingly complex and inte ...

known to have occurred from at least December 2003 until May 2005, targeting many sites on the Internet including the

US Military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, where the Trinity t ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, a number of US academic institutions (known to include

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

San Diego Supercomputer Center The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego. Founded in 1985, it was one of the five original NSF supercomputing centers. Its research pursuits are high performance comput ...

, and UIUC), and a number of non-US academic institutions (known to include

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

in Sweden and

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...

in Ireland) and several other Internet locations. By using locally based

kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine learnin ...

exploits (a sophisticated technique that requires a high knowledge level and advanced development skills), Stakkato managed to elevate its user privileges and gain control of various systems within numerous government agencies and private sector enterprises. Via stolen login credentials Stakkato was able to gain access to these systems for well over two years. Finally, Stakkato was able to gain access to

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

Corporation's router internetwork operating system (IOS)

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

, which enabled the attacker to develop custom exploits, rootkits (backdoors), and enhanced control of routers around the world. Pettersson from

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

, Sweden, then 16 years old, was questioned over the attack in March 2005, while possible accomplices were searched in Sweden, Britain, and elsewhere in Europe. Pettersson was indicted with five felonies in May 2009, and in February 2010 his prosecution was transferred to Swedish authorities.http://www.infosecurity-us.com/view/7184/stakkato-to-be-tried-in-sweden-for-cisco-hack/ Stakkato to be tried in Sweden for Cisco hack, 10 February 2010

References

External links

* Bodmer, Kilger, Carpenter, & Jones (2012). Reverse Deception: Organized Cyber Threat Counter-Exploitation. New York: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. ,
Swede indicted for NASA-CISCO hacks

Hacker infiltrated government computers
CNN, 10 May 2005
The Stakkato Intrusions - What happened and what have we learned?
technical presentation at CCGrid06, 17 May 2006
Tempting Fate
Abe Singer, '';login:'' February 2005. Description of attacks and response at SDSC.
Swedish Notice to DOJ concerning possible prosecution of stakkato
DOJ, 5 February 2010 {{Hacking in the 2000s 20th-century births Living people Cybercriminals 21st-century Swedish criminals Hackers Year of birth missing (living people)

See also

References

External links