By Allison Linn
Seattle
July 12, 2004

A man accused of hacking into search engine company AltaVista's computer
systems about two years ago is now employed by Microsoft Corp, reportedly
working on search technology.

Laurent Chavet, 29, was arrested by FBI agents a week ago in Redmond,
Washington, acting on a warrant issued in San Francisco.

Federal prosecutors allege that Chavet hacked into AltaVista's computer
system to obtain software blueprints called source code and recklessly
caused damage to AltaVista's computers.

Microsoft spokeswoman Tami Begasse said today that Chavet, who lives in
Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle on the UD west coast, was an employee of
Microsoft. She declined further comment on the nature of Chavet's employment
or when he started at the company, citing Microsoft policy on not discussing
personnel matters.

Generally speaking, Begasse said: "We're confident in our policies and
procedures we have in place to protect our code and to ensure that employees
do not bring third party code into the work place."

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, citing anonymous sources, reported that
Chavet had been working on Microsoft's MSN Search effort.
 
In a research paper on search technology published in IBM Systems Journal,
Chavet is listed as a search expert who works at Microsoft and was
previously with AltaVista.

In 2003, AltaVista, based in Sunnyvale, California, was acquired by search
company Overture Services, Inc, which in turn was acquired by Yahoo Inc
later that year. Microsoft's MSN website currently uses both Overture's and
Yahoo's search technology.

But the Redmond company has begun an aggressive effort to develop its own
search technology as it tries to compete with search engine leaders Google
and Yahoo. Microsoft, which has acknowledged it lags in search, hopes to
play catch-up with a broadbased search tool that allows users to also scour
through emails, documents and even big databases.

Court documents say Chavet worked at AltaVista from approximately June
1999 to February 2002. Beginning in late March 2002, the US attorney's
office alleges in court documents, Chavet began accessing AltaVista's
computers without permission, causing about $US5,000 ($A7,000) in damage
over a one year period.

A spokeswoman for Overture declined to comment on Chavet's case. 
Assistant US Attorney Chris Sonderby, who is in charge of the California
unit prosecuting the case, said The Associated Press that the allegations
against Chavet "do not pertain to Microsoft".

Chavet was released on a $US10,000 ($A13,900) bond and is expected to make a
court appearance on July 20 in San Francisco. Both charges carry a maximum
penalty of five years in prison and a $US250,000
($A347,500) fine.