If you break the law, you will get caught. And that's what happened to a State Department employee who went snooping through electronic passport application files for fun.

Kevin M. Young, 42, of Temple Hills, Md., was sentenced to 12 months of probation this week for illegally accessing more than 125 electronic passport application files. In addition, Judge Alan Kay, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ordered Young to perform 100 hours of community service. Young pleaded guilty on Aug. 17 to one count of unauthorized computer access.

Young has worked full time for the State Department since February 1987, and he has been a contact representative for the Passport Special Issuance Agency for the past eight years, the Department of Justice said.

But curiosity got the better of him between March 11, 2003, and Dec. 21, 2005. He took a look at passport applications for more than 125 celebrities, actors, comedians, professional athletes, musicians, models, a politician and other individuals identified in the press, according to the complaint filed against him.

In his guilty plea, Young said he had no official government reason to view these passport applications, and his reason for doing so was "idle curiosity."

Young is the eighth current or former State Department employee or contractor to plead guilty since September 2008 to charges related to passport snooping. Most of the other defendants have received sentences of probation, community service, or fines.

For more on the passport caper:
- see this PCWorld article

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