:: Deepquest ::

A hacker broke into a wireless carrier’s network over at least seven months and read e-mails and personal computer files of hundreds of customers, including the Secret Service agent investigating the hacker, the government said Wednesday.

The hacker obtained an internal Secret Service memorandum and part of a mutual assistance legal treaty from Russia. The documents contained “highly sensitive information pertaining to ongoing … criminal cases,” according to court records.

The break-in targeted the network for Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile USA, which has 16.3 million customers in the United States. It was discovered during a broad Secret Service investigation, “Operation Firewall,” which targeted underground hacker organizations known as Shadowcrew, Carderplanet and Darkprofits.

Nicolas Lee Jacobsen, 21, of Santa Ana, California, a computer engineer, has been charged with the break-in in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Investigators said they traced the hacker’s online activities to a hotel in Williamsport, New York, where Jacobsen was staying.

Jacobsen, who was arrested in October in California, has been released on a $25,000 bond posted by his uncle, who was ordered to keep his own personal computer locked up so Jacobsen couldn’t use it.

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