Venezuelan computer hacker Rafael Nunez-Aponte, known to his fellow geeks as “RaFa,” has spent the last seven months in a US jail and that means he can walk now that US District Judge Walker Miller has sentenced him to seven months for breaking into a USAF computer in June 2001. His action left a Web-based server network inoperable for a time. There is one more note: Nunez-Aponte will leave the US lighter by some $5,000—about half what it cost to fix his little hack. US officials seized the money last April when they arrested him as he entered the country to attend a conference. We call that an expensive—and stupid—thrill.
The Air Force’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile is behind schedule and may significantly overrun its expected cost, which could partially explain why the service is reviving the hypersonic AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid-Response Weapon.