The 2004 theft of some Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) source code has been traced back to a then 16-year-old Swedish kid. But since Sweden doesn't extradite its citizens, it's not clear much is going to happen from here.

Chunks of version 12.3 of Cisco's Internetwork Operating System (IOS) got stolen in 2004, with one arrest in the U.K. disclosed several months later. (See Cisco's IOS Code 'Compromised' and Cisco Code Hacker Arrested.)

Yesterday, the U.S. Justice Department filed an indictment against Philip Gabriel Pettersson of Sweden. Under the hacker name Stakkato, Pettersson allegedly nabbed the Cisco code and, separately, has been under suspicion of breaking into a few U.S. military networks.

Wired has posted the five-count indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif. Two of the counts relate not to Cisco, but to alleged attacks on computers at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division at Moffett Field.

Each charge of intrusion and trade-secret theft could draw a penalty of 10 years in prison, a three-year term of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.

Petersson, who would be 20 or 21 now, also got into trouble in 2007 for hacking Swedish university networks.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading