Ikenna Iffih, 28, a computer science student at Northeastern University, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on three federal counts of unauthorized entry access to various military and government networks.
Iffih "used his home computer to leave a trail of cyber-crime from coast to coast," U.S. Attorney Donald Stern in Boston said in a statement Wednesday.
Stern said Iffih broke into three computer systems -- at Goddard, the Defense Logistics Agency in Columbus, Ohio and an internet service provider in Seattle, Washington -- in a hacking spree that began last April.
None of the systems contained any classified or sensitive information and were not involved in the command or control of satellites.
NASA officials declined Thursday to characterize the damage to the Goddard system.
"We don’t discuss incidents like this, other than to acknowledge that they happened because we have to protect the security of our systems," said Brian Welch, a NASA spokesman.
But Iffih, Stern said, "recklessly caused damage," including a "significant" loss of business at the Seattle site. On the Goddard system, Iffih was able to read, delete and alter files as well as intercept and save log-in names.
The Goddard system was used as a springboard to launch attacks on other computer systems, including the Department of Interior's web server, which was defaced with what Stern called "hacker graphics."
Prosecutors also said Iffih obtained unauthorized access to Northeastern's computers and copied private information -- including names, addresses and Social Security numbers -- on 9,135 students, faculty and alumni at the school.
Iffih was not connected with a string of high-profile attacks on popular retail and news websites earlier this month, prosecutors said.
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