[bigiain]

Quite likely Randal Schwartz.

"In July 1995, Schwartz was prosecuted in the case of State of Oregon vs. Randal Schwartz, which dealt with compromised computer security during his time as a system administrator for Intel. In the process of performing penetration testing, he cracked a number of passwords on Intel's systems. Schwartz was originally convicted on three felony counts, with one reduced to a misdemeanor, but on February 1, 2007, his arrest and conviction records were sealed through an official expungement, and he is legally no longer a felon." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randal_L._Schwartz

[terminous]

Important aspect: he had been fired and cracked passwords while no longer an employee, to try to get rehired:

"Rather ill-advisedly, the Perl-programming guru (who's written several books on the subject) tried to prove his worth by running a password cracking package after he'd left in order to produce evidence that security practices had deteriorated since his departure. Instead of re-hiring Schwartz, as he hoped, Intel called in the police and he was charged with hacking offences."

https://www.theregister.com/2007/03/05/intel_hacker_charges_...

[fragmede]

Wikipedia is a little light on the details. How much time did he end up serving, and were there any repercussions for the other parties involved?