LOS ANGELES: This is a major boost in the fight against cybercrime. On 24 March a temporary version of broadcaster Al Jazeera's English site went online to cover the Iraq war. However it was brought down by hackers within a day.

Now the man behind the crime web designer John William Racine II has been ordered to perform 1000 hours of community service.

Racine also has to pay $2,000. As per reports US District Judge A. Howard Metz said during the sentencing hearing that he believed Racine immediately recognised how much terrible havoc was caused by the hacking.

As reported earlier by indiantelevision.com it was in June that Racine had pleaded guilty to felony charges of wire fraud and unlawful interception of an electronic communication. Racine had admitted that he intercepted e-mails and content from Al-Jazeera and rerouted users to another site showing the American flag and the phrase 'Let Freedom Ring'. He had allegedly captured about 300 Al-Jazeera e-mail messages, got the password by posing as a networking contact and communicating with Network Solutions.

The Qatar-based broadcaster has said that it believes that more than one person was responsible for hacking their site during the Iraq invasion.