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'Mafiaboy' faces 64 new charges, pleads not guilty
From: William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 11:32:03 -0500
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/30/ns-17100.html Fri, 04 Aug 2000 09:14:34 GMT Reuters Accused teenage hacker pleads 'not guilty' to 64 new charges related to the jamming of sites such as Yahoo!, CNN.com and eBay A 16-year-old Canadian hacker dubbed "Mafiaboy" pleaded not guilty Thursday to mischief charges related to the jamming of high-profile Web sites such as Yahoo!, CNN.com and eBay last February, crimes that served as a global wake-up call to the Internet's fragility. The Montreal-area teen, who cannot be identified under a Canadian law designed to protect young offenders, appeared tense as his lawyer registered the not guilty pleas at the Quebec Court Youth Chamber in Montreal, shortly after the prosecution added 64 new charges against him. Mafiaboy, whose computer skills have been described by police as far from extraordinary, was initially charged with two counts of mischief related to a cyber-attack in February on CNN.com. More charges were laid after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police discovered evidence linking him to attacks the same day on five other Web sites -- Yahoo! Amazon.com e-Bay.com, Dell.com and Outlawnet.com. The attacks flooded the sites with traffic and left them inaccessible for hours. Ten of the new charges are for mischief against the five Web sites, and the 54 others relate to illegal use of computer systems, mainly in US universities, Quebec prosecutor Louis Miville-Deschenes said outside the court. "General deterrence will be a sentencing factor to be considered," the prosecutor said. "There was real physical damage to the computers of those companies, investigations had to be set up, there is a loss of confidence in the public toward this technology and loss of revenues." Mafiaboy was arrested by the Mounties in April after three months of extensive phone and computer taps and following tips from informants, the prosecutor said. "There is direct evidence placing him behind the computer," Miville-Deschenes said, adding the police investigation was now completed and no other person is likely to be charged. "The evidence that had to be sifted through was overwhelming. The evidence clearly shows that he bragged about his act" in Internet chat rooms and over the phone, he said. If convicted, the teenager would face up to two years in a youth detention centre. He was released shortly after his arrest. One of the bail conditions was that he not use a computer except for academic purposes and under the supervision of a teacher. "He is trying to keep up a normal life as possible given the circumstances," said the youth's lawyer, Yan Romanowsky. "He has a summer job in a restaurant, school is starting in September and he has bail conditions he has to obey." Mafiaboy will appear in court again on 28 September, when a trial date will be set, Romanowsky said. "So far, it's only Canadian accusations. We have not heard that there would be any American accusations," he said. The February attacks alarmed Internet users around the globe, cost Web sites millions of dollars in revenue and shook the electronic commerce industry because of the apparent ease with which major sites were jammed. *==============================================================* "Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ================================================================ C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org *==============================================================* ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".
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- 'Mafiaboy' faces 64 new charges, pleads not guilty William Knowles (Sep 19)