WARRANT ISSUED FOR ARGENTINE ACCUSED OF HACKING INTO NASA.

Byline: Carol Rosenberg Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

He called himself ``griton,'' Spanish for screamer, and allegedly used stolen Harvard University passwords to sneak into U.S. government computers from his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He hacked his way into NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, poked around the Los Alamos National Laboratory and even tried, but failed, to invade the Army Research lab's computer system.

On Friday, federal officials announced an arrest warrant for Argentine Julio Cesar Ardita, 22, who was described as part snoop, part spook, and was unmasked in an international crime hunt carried out with the first computer wiretap order.

``This is a case of cyber-sleuthing, a glimpse of what computer crime fighting will look like in the coming years,'' said U.S. Attorney Donald Stern. ``We have made enormous strides in developing the investigative tools to track down individuals who misuse vital computer networks.''

The felony charges: Fraudulent possession of unauthorized computer passwords, destructive activity in connection with computers and illegal interception of electronic communications.

While Ardita hacked his way into ``important and sensitive information in government research files on satellites, radiations and energy-related engineering,'' a Justice Department announcement said, Ardita is ``not accused of obtaining classified information related to national security.''

Ardita may not ever face trial. While the United States has an extradition treaty with Argentina, the crimes for which Ardita is being sought are not extraditable, according to Justice Department spokesman John Russell.

Still, the case reflects the new world of computer crime confronting federal and international law enforcement agencies.

Attorney General Janet Reno said the unusual use of a wiretap - in which law enforcement officers electronically sifted through billions of bytes to hunt down and identify a hacker - ``is an example of how the Fourth Amendment and a court order can be used to protect rights while adapting to modern technology.''

The history-making tap was attached to the Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Science computers in the last two months of 1995, according to Justice Department officials.

It was issued by a federal judge in Boston and involved a balancing act between federal interests in tracking down the hacker and the need to ensure other people's privacy on the Internet, said Stern.

``We intercepted only those communications which fit a pattern,'' he said. ``Even when communications contained the identifying pattern of the intruder, we limited our initial examination.''