HELENA - Todd Shriber, press secretary for Rep. Denny Rehberg, was fired Thursday, immediately after he confessed to trying to hire computer hackers to break into the computers at his former college.

Erik Iverson, Rehberg's chief of staff, said Friday, that he learned of the hacking incident Thursday after Rehberg's Washington, D.C., office was contacted by a reporter with the on-line computing journal NetworkWorld.

Iverson said he talked to Shriber, who explained his efforts to hire hackers beginning in August to break into the computers of Texas Christian University and inflating his grades.

"When he was finished, I terminated him," Iverson said.

Shriber, 28, had worked for Rehberg for about a year.

Iverson said he was surprised to learn about Shriber's hacking efforts.

"Todd is a good peson," he said. "He just did an incredibly stupid thing and, sometimes, when you do those things, there are consequences for your actions."

Iverson said Shriber's account of the would-be hacking mirrored the article published Thursday night on NetworkWorld.com. Shriber didn't actually succeed in hiring a hacker, rather he solicited hackers from the computer security Web site, www.attrition.org.

A complete transcript of the e-mails has been posted on the site. According to those e-mails, the two "hackers" who responded to Shriber's Aug. 9 initial solicitation lead Shriber to believe they were going to break into the school's computer, although they never did. In the last e-mail to Shriber, the "hackers" claimed they had been caught in the act and urged Shriber to never contact the site again.

"You know you're just as guilty and liable (as us), so when (officials) come knocking, don't say anything without a lawyer and when you ask them to put the gund down, say it nice because that (stuff) isn't fun," the final e-mail reads.

In fact, the hackers never broke into the computer and were evidently only tricking Shriber.

Shriber could not be reached for comment Friday morning.

Officials at Texas Christian University were also immediately unavailable for comment.