Army investigators help nab hacker

Information provided by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division led the FBI to arrest a suspect in the June 28 hacking of the Army's World Wide Web site, according to service officials.

The suspect, 19-year-old Chad Davis of Green Bay, Wis., is the reputed co-founder of a hacker organization known as Global Hell.

The Army said the arrest followed a two-month investigation of an intruder who gained illegal access to the Army's Web site and modified its contents. The intruder, according to the Army, also gained access to an unclassified Army network and removed and modified computer files to prevent detection. The Army and FBI investigation led federal agents to Wisconsin, where they identified and arrested the suspect.

Hacker attacks such as this one, and the potential for foreign powers to attack Army networks as well, has caused the Army to take the strongest stance among the four services against using public networks to host Web pages and transmit data, even if unclassified.

Lt. Gen. William Campbell, the Army Director of Information Systems for Command, Control, Communications and Computers, has advocated removing key Army systems and Web pages from the Internet and establishing a separate network for Army interaction with the public and for electronic transactions with Army contractors and suppliers.