A teenage hacker who wrecked havoc across the internet with his DDoS for nearly a year and a half between December 2013 and March 2015 has been sentenced to two years in a young offender institution, The Guardian reported yesterday.
Adam Mudd, now 20, created the Titanium Destresser program that has gone on to be used for more than 1.7m attacks, with Mudd himself directly involved in 594 DDoS attacks agains 181 IP addresses while he was active. He created the program for profit, making the equivalent of £386,000 before he was caught, but neither defence nor prosecution believe he was motivated by money, but for recognition within the hacker community.
While his attacks affecting companies and services around the world, including Microsoft, Sony, TeamSpeak, RuneScape, and many more, he also attacked the college he attended, West Herts College, where he was studying computer sciences. While pleading guilty to three charges – one count of committing unauthorised acts with intent to impair the operation of computers; one count of making, supplying or offering to supply an article for use in an offence contrary to the Computer Misuse Act; and one count of concealing criminal property – his reason for the college hack was that he reported being mugged on campus but felt that nothing was done about it.
The judge, Michael Topolski QC, refused a suspended jail term, saying that there must be a “real element of deterrent” and telling Mudd that “I’m entirely satisfied that you knew full well and understood completely this was not a game for fun. It was a serious money-making business and your software was doing exactly what you created it to do.”
Source: The Guardian via Eurogamer
Crazy_Del
He should be banned from computers and such surely? He could hack a phone like Watch_Dogs…. now that is a scary thought!
JR.
Far too lenient. He should be hanged or forced to make OLED display panels for Apple so the new iPhone isn’t delayed until next year. Now that’s a deterrent.
bunimomike
Glad he was locked up to be honest. There seems to be a culture of thinking that “hacking” isn’t so bad.
Hell, look at the costs! Runescape spent £6m after the attack. :-\
stigdu
Bit harsh, I think. Considering the hacking most likely amounted to people being unable to access the internet for a few days (rather than, say, money being taken out of bank accounts), then he should be doing community service, or be temporarily employed as Stephen Hawking’s arse wiper for a year.
camdaz
Not really harsh, but I wouldn’t bet against a top IT company offering him a job when he’s released.
The Lone Steven
Those few days could have caused weeks of delays. E.g. At the college, someone could have needed the internet to access something and being unable to could have caused them to miss the deadline. Combined with potential stress for the students, it is not just a few days of no net but major disruption. Same with businesses who rely on the internet to do their things.
The Lone Steven
I can’t help but think he is being made of an example of but on the other hand, serves him right. He knew what he was doing and DDOS(though, that is often regarded as the lowest form of hacking) is very disruptive. It costs businesses a lot of cash due to their sites being down. I would make a prison joke but it would likely breach the rules.
That and I’m not Bunimomike, the resident pervert.