May 12, 2010

Teen Hacker Found Guilty for Crashing PlayStation Website

A 17-year old honor student living in Pennsylvania, was found guilty of crashing Sony's official PlayStation website for 11 days in 2008. The teen hacked the website to retaliate against Sony after being disqualified from an online war game competition for cheating. Consequently, the FBI launched a federal investigation into the incident, and enlisted the digital forensics expertise of the San Diego RCFL (SDRCFL), who tracked the boy's digital footsteps back to him. Although a grand jury was seated in San Diego, the teen was tried in a Pittsburgh juvenile court because of his age.

The teen's methods, although they may sound sophisticated, really weren't. He used hacker tools to contact computers around the world infected with a virus. In turn, those computers clogged three games on the PlayStation site, causing it to crash and go off-line. The FBI takes hacking seriously, and wanted to send a message to others by launching a federal investigation. The teen faces 12 months probation, 250 hours of community service, and $5,000 in damages to Sony. Had he been tried as an adult; the consequences for his actions may have been much harsher. In March 2010, a computer hacker from Miami was sentenced to 20 years in prison for cheating companies, banks and insurers out of nearly $200 million.

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