Two California teenagers have pleaded guilty to federal charges of cracking Pentagon computers, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Terms of the plea are still being negotiated after a meeting last week between attorneys for the youths and federal officials, the newspaper said. Neither youth is expected to serve time in custody, sources close to the case said.
In February, the FBI raided the Cloverdale homes of the two suspected crackers -- nicknamed Makaveli, 16, and TooShort, 15 -- and seized computers believed to have been used to break into unclassified computer systems in government agencies, military bases, and universities.
The youths were never formally arrested in the FBI probe. US Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre called the breach "the most organized and systematic attack" to date on Pentagon systems.
