Mr Roberts, of Hampshire, was among four founder members of the Testery section tasked with breaking the German High Command's Tunny code.

BBC: Raymond 'Jerry' Roberts

The U.S. military is conducting its own investigation and will mete out "punishment, if appropriate ... in accordance with established policies and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, " the Southern Command said in its statement.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The app displays a warning window each time a malicious USSD code is found, blocking the execution of the command.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

The hacker doesn't even need to be in the same ZIP code to crack a firewall or VPN -- the 3G link lets the Power Pwn take bash command-line instructions through SMS messages and doles out some of its feedback the same way.

ENGADGET: DARPA-backed Power Pwn is power strip by day, superhero hack machine by night

But the very effort to ensure the fairness of prosecutions under the Uniform Code of Military Justice depends on a principle that contributes to the protracted and confidential nature of such prosecutions: preventing command interference with the proceedings.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Get a grip