The story of a teenage hacker, who hacked NASA.

Jonathan James was born on December 12, 1982, in the small village of Pinecrest on the Miami Dade Counter in Florida.

James' father was a computer programmer and his mother a housewife. James' interest in computers began when he was 6 years old. He would regularly play video games using his father's computer. But as he grows his interests gradually changed. His focus began to shift from gaming to learning coding.

One day, James' father was shocked when he came home from work and checked his computer. The computer's operating system has changed from Windows to Linux. It was only later that they realized it was the work that James had done.

Out of curiosity to test an unfamiliar operating system and how it works, James installed Linux on his father's computer. As a teenager, James became interested in computers and programming. He started spending all his time on his computer. But the parents who saw this were terrified. At that time, James was getting good marks in school. So they began to fear that this would affect their son's studies. So James' parents began to strictly control his use of computers.

But James could not accept this. He went home saying that programming and computer would not affect his marks. Guaranteed he would only return if his parents returned the computer. His parents could not hold back in front of him. James also promised to return the computer if it affected his study marks.

James was sure that the marks would not fall.

Because it was James who hacked into the network at the Miami-Dade County Educational Institute and corrected his mark on it.

At the age of 15, First time James hacked the websites of educational institutions and began to think of other things.

In 1999, he targeted some giants. His first target was AT&T Bellsouth, the largest telecommunications company in the United States at the time, and the network was hacked. However, James was not harmed. His main goal is not to make a profit or steal. On the contrary, he was testing his ability to hack the network of big companies like AT&T Bellsouth. James is looking for vulnerable servers that he can crash. So he found one in Huntsville, Alabama. Somehow he installed his malware on it. Thus, 13 computers connected to that network came under his control. James later found out that the network was part of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

It was the place where they developing and testing ISS-type rocket engines and communication systems.

James gained access to the source code of the program. They were controlling life-sustaining elements on the International Space Station. That is, they were information worth about millions of dollars. But soon NASA security guards found it. They realized that someone had entered the network. They froze those computers and servers for fear of damage. They froze for about 3 weeks.

After learning of the information, the FBI began investigating the issue.

They did not know who was behind it.

But James knew none of this. James was still a schoolboy. He went to classes in the morning and did hacking at night.

In September 1999, James had the opportunity to install malware on a server in Dallas, Verginia. James did not miss that opportunity. He also installed a program to access all network traffic passing through the servers, including login credentials. But there was one thing that James did not notice. The server was owned by DTRA, or Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a large division of the Department of Defense. James collected a lot of information about DTRA users. This has led to the Defense Agency gaining access to dozens of computers. In addition, he was able to download thousands of letters from numerous Pentagon users.

January 2000, It did not take long for the Defense Agency to find out who was behind the hacking. So the Defense Department Agents and the Pinecrest police decided to arrest Jonathan James. On January 26, a group of agents wearing bulletproof vests surrounded James' home and arrested him.

Four computers, a laptop and a pocket computer were recovered from the house. But under the age of 18, they could not take James to jail. He was sentenced to six months' house arrest.

Then James began to be questioned. He pleaded guilty on hacking NASA and later Defense Agency. However, inquiries revealed that James had not installed viruses, deleted files, or changed password. He did not inflict any damage on any of the hacked systems. The court then ordered James to apologize NASA and the U.S. defense agency in writing.

Six months of house arrest is over. Occasionally he would go outside without police knowingly. But one day James caught by the police. He was caught from a street, Then his blood was tested and it was found that he had consumed some drugs. Jonathan James was sentenced to six months in prison in a juvenile prison in Alabama.

It was the first time in the United States that a teenager went to jail for hacking a computer. So he became big news in the media

"I started hacking for a joke. I also saw that the simplicity of playing a video game. I never thought it would be such a big trouble. Anyway, I have decided not to hack anymore". James said.

In 6 months James had learned many things from there. James then decided to lead a normal life at his parents' house in Pinecrest.

Some later, Police have identified a group of hackers led by Albert Gonzalez. But the police did not want to arrest them alone.

January 2007 was a time of massive cyber theft in the United States. Hackers have stolen and illegally used the credit card information of millions of users, causing great damage to consumers and companies. So the police hired a secret team to catch them. They realized that a cyber gang was behind this. But the police did not want to arrest him alone. They had to catch everyone in the group.

Some of James' colleagues and friends were members of this group. Officers realized that some in the group knew James.

They then continued the investigation. Police arrested most of the gang members. But there was a unknown hacker who could not find them.

The hacker uses the name JJ. The name JJ began to raise suspicions in the police mind. The warrant was issued by the intelligence team to search James' home. That doubt itself was abundant. So the police decided to raid the house of James, his brother, and his girlfriend to investigate James' possibilities in the credit card case. But the police did not find any particular evidence from there.

But a gun and a suicide note were found in James' home. The police could not do anything special because they had a gun license. James kept saying his innocence over and over again. Police later decided to question James. Even then, no evidence was found from James.

It was later discovered by police that the owner of the name, JJ was Jim Johns.

Though that problems over, the previous raid was a huge blow to James' life. All of these events led James to a state of depression.

May 18th 2008, Jonathan James is found dead in his room. Jonathan James shot himself to death with the same gun found by police during the raid.

"Think, seek, and you will surely find the answer"