If my lock is broken and you break in, should I charge you for fixing my door?

A Portland man has been sentanced to 6 months in jail for breaking into a NASA computer - to store his movie files. NASA claims he caused $200,000 in damage.

They go on to say that It took hours for technicians to find the problem, fix it and patch the system's security holes, officials said. They talk later on about how When you knock a system off line, you have to start it back up again," Nyhus said. "It's not like firing up your Macintosh or your Apple where you push a button and wait six minutes for the thing to boot."

If your Mac or Apple (aren't they the same thing) takes 6 minutes to boot up, you might want to check if your AppleCare is paid up and visit the Genius Bar at your local Apple store. But aside from that, I get the impression that at least part of that $200,000 figure is for patching the system's security holes. To include that seems grossly unfair - they would have to patch the security holes no matter if he broke in or not - it's just that his breaking in alerted them to the security holes.

And if NASA's computers can be broken in by a 17-year old looking to park his pr0n, I'm frightened for our nation's security.