A US district judge in Washington DC sentenced a Malaysian national yesterday to 10 years in prison for hacking into the US Federal Reserve and other banks.

Lin Mun Poo, a Malaysian citizen, had admitted earlier this year to hacking into the US central bank along with various other private financial institutions and possessing stolen bank cards and credit card numbers, officials said.

He also admitted to have hacked a Fed computer server and installed a malicious software code there.

Poo travelled to the United States in October last year "for the purpose of selling stolen credit cards and bank card numbers" but a purchaser was in fact an undercover US agent, according to prosecutors.

When he was arrested, the Malaysian citizen held over 122,000 stolen bank cards and credit card numbers.

The US Justice Department said Poo's "cybercrime activities also extended to the national security sector," including hacking into the computer system of a Pentagon contractor that provides systems management services for military transport and other military operations.

"Today's sentence sends the message to hackers around the world that the United States is no place to conduct their business," US Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.    

- AFP