Hacker pleads guilty after attempting to sell data to FBI

James Miller offered to provide information to undercover FBI agent for $50,000

A computer hacker has pleaded guilty to selling information about US government supercomputers after offering to sell it to an undercover FBI agent.

Andrew James Miller, a 24 year old from Pennsylvania, had admitted to unlawfully accessing servers belonging to the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, based in the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, California.

Miller, a member of the hacking group Underground Intelligence Agency, was arrested in June after offering to sell access to the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center computers, some of the most powerful in the world, in a series of online conversations with an undercover agent.

Using the online handle "Green", Miller offered access to the servers for $50,000 and also claimed to have access to computers at Harvard University and the University of California at Davis. He also told the undercover FBI agent that he'd hacked into corporate systems including Google, Yahoo and American Express.

Court documents suggest Miller could face up to 18 months in prison after making a plea deal with the Massachusetts authorities, although he remains free ahead of a sentencing date scheduled for November.

The case against Miller was made with the aid of another Underground Intelligence Agency member called "Intel".