The hacker known as "The Analyser" narrowly avoided a prison sentence last week, after being found guilty of breaking into US Department of Defence networks.

Instead, the 22-year-old Israeli hacker was sentenced to six months community service, one year's probation with a two-year suspended prison sentence, and a $18,000 fine.

Ehud Tenenbaum was arrested in February 1999 after an investigation, codenamed "Solar Sunrise", led by the CIA and the FBI. He pleaded guilty to breaking into US and Israeli computers, and conspiracy.

Two Californian teenagers were also arrested during the investigation.

In 1998 Tenenbaum compromised machines on the Pentagon network and almost triggered a full-scale cyberwar alarm.

"The Analyser" compromised a number of Solaris machines using a known vulnerability that had been identified months before and for which patches were readily available.

Before his arrest in 1999, Tenenbaum was asked by Israeli computer manufacturer EIM to endorse its products after he laid claim to the Pentagon attacks.

In return for the advertisement, Tenenbaum received the rather miserly fee of one EIM computer. But then again, his last one had been confiscated by the Israeli police.