21-year-old Robert Lyttle, a Californian hacker who broke into the computer systems of federal agencies has been sentenced to four months in prison. Lyttle, who was part of a two man team called "The Deceptive Duo", was found guilty of unlawfully accessing computer systems of various federal agencies in April 2002. These systems included the Department of Defence's Defence Logistic Information Service (DLIS) and Office of Health Affairs (OHA) and the National Aeronautic and Space Administration's (NASA) Ames Research Center (ARC). Lyttle has claimed that he was trying to help these organisations improve their security, if only he had asked their permission first he might not be heading for the slammer now.

U.S. District Court Judge D. Lowell Jensen handed down the sentence following a guilty plea on five counts of unauthorized access to government computers. As well as the four month prison sentence, Lyttle will also have to spend a further four months electronically tagged in home confinement and pay $71,181 in restitution. He will also undergo a three year period of supervised release. The defendant will begin serving his sentence on August 24, 2005.