The court said by his illegal move Richter jeopardized Sweden’s national security. When deciding on the sentence, the court took into consideration that Richter cooperated with Swedish authorities.
Between 2002 and 2004, Richter broke into Ericsson’s computer network, and contacted the company under the pseudo name Timo Gelb. In February 2004, he met a representative of the company, called Mr. Brown, in Vienna and was given money. However, a few days later Austrian police cracked down on the cracker. Later the Austrian authorities released him.
Last October Richter went to Malmö with intentions to sell data to Ericsson. However, Swedish national security officers arrested him and kept him behind bars. During his trial Richter said repeatedly that he was seeking job opportunity only at the Swedish firm, and he did not intend to harm the company, but call attention to security weaknesses by cracking into its computer system.