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Perl Guru, aka Hacker, from Intel Got a Clean Chit After 12 years

Intel hired Randal Schwartz as a contractor in early 90s. Schwartz was surprised at the poor state of Intel's password system.

In police investigation, Schwartz stated that he required the passwords in case company personnel caught him doing that and they would throw him out. So the more number of passwords he had, the longer he could pursue his work. crn reported his statement on March 5, 2007.

Randal Schwartz was taken into custody in 1993 after employing a program, 'Crack' to know the passwords of several former colleagues in Intel SSD (Supercomputer Systems Division). Schwartz left SSD in suspicion and informed the court he decided to hack the passwords of Intel to show that security of SSD had become weak since he had left, and to get his respect back he lost when he left the SSD.

Intel discharged Schwartz and he was accused under Oregon computer crimes legislation and found guilty in 1995.

In 1995 only, Schwartz was found guilty of three counts of computers offence and was ordered to pay a compensation of US$ 68,000 to Intel. His punishment also included 5 years of probation, 90 days of postponed jail time and 480 hours of community service. By '95 end, his legal bill had already crossed US$ 170,000.

But Schwartz opposed his conviction as unfair and after a court appeal, his compensation was cancelled in 1999.

In October '06, Schwartz explained on the Website of Yahoo Tech Group that he appealed to a Democratic governor (he had already granted pardon to some) for mercy. A court in Oregon ordered an expungement of Schwartz's conviction in February beginning.

On being asked whether he did wrong and whether he was aware of the fact that he had violated the policy of Intel, he answered yes, but added that he knew he could do it.

Schwartz got a clean chit after twelve years of trial on March 4, 2007, thanks to a decision given by the governor of Oregon.

Now Schwartz is working a software consultant for Stonehenge Services and has penned down two influential works on Perl coding languages.

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