Hacker gets two years

gimli2112

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-39705068


2 years is probably harsh but then I think of that Christmas from a few years back that Lizard Squad took down the PSN and literally ruined Christmas.

Creamy Goodness

harsh? he got off pretty lightly imo.

Neon_Lights

gimli2112 wrote: »

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-39705068


2 years is probably harsh but then I think of that Christmas from a few years back that Lizard Squad took down the PSN and literally ruined Christmas.

Its pretty hard to quantify as the judge may have no idea of the individuals technical intelligence, they also can use it as an opportunity to recruit to GCHQ if the individual is skilled

hungry hypno toad

He did it for financial gain, no sympathy for a fairly light sentence. I assume the defence tried to use his autism as an excuse.

kunst nugget

Considering the misery he and the programme he sold on to others have caused people, companies and organisations, I think he got off quite lightly.

Daledge

Two years isn't harsh, there's potential for him to do a lot worse. Probably will eventually.

Canis Lupus

F*ck him.

degrassinoel

LOL his name is Mudd :pac:

moonlighting

So he made quarter of a million. nice,
Time for a career change for me. :cool:

K.O.Kiki

gaming websites including Minecraft, Xbox Live and the fantasy game Runescape

...

It had 112,000 registered users, who in turn attacked 666,000 IP addresses globally.

Wow, those numbers sure look awfully convenient.



666 because he's evil innit.

ShadowHearth

hungry hypno toad wrote: »

He did it for financial gain, no sympathy for a fairly light sentence. I assume the defence tried to use his autism as an excuse.

I hope he got all that money confiscated. Even then he got away very lightly. He did it for profit and not just for ****s and giggles.

ShadowHearth

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I hope he got all that money confiscated. Even then he got away very lightly. He did it for profit and not just for ****s and giggles.

I believe they have proceeds of crime legislation in the UK to do just that.

Sephiroth_dude

He's a scumbag and just as bad as lizard squad in my book, he should have gotten more for all the grief he caused.

Potential-Monke

When i initially heard he had autism, i was sceptical about the sentencing, as i have a nephew who is autistic, and sometimes he just doesn't realise what he is doing is wrong. However, having read the article, and seeing that he got a substantial amount of money for creating the file, i have no sympathy. He knew what he was doing, and got paid for it. He'll be out in a few months with good behaviour because the "prison" won't be able to supply to his needs, he'll be considered a low risk re-offender, might get a PC ban for a while. With his intelligence (i'm guessing, i've no idea how hard it is to create stuff like this), he has the IT world at his fingertips, but he may just have shot himself in the foot for future employment, which will either lead to a sad, lonely life, or a return to cyber crime, except this time he'll probably be more careful about covering his steps.

Dyr

Canis Lupus wrote: »

F*ck him.

oh they will, won't be any denial of service for him now

the_syco

Potential-Monke wrote: »

With his intelligence (i'm guessing, i've no idea how hard it is to create stuff like this), he has the IT world at his fingertips, but he may just have shot himself in the foot for future employment, which will either lead to a sad, lonely life, or a return to cyber crime, except this time he'll probably be more careful about covering his steps.

He'll get a job with either a security firm, or a semi-state company that does security. If all else fails, he'll become employed by a shady setup that has use for his skills.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

harsh? he got off pretty lightly imo.

Lol at all the rage against him.

There's scum out there who have done a lot worse and have less sentences. He inconvenienced some gamers, boo hoo. 2 years is a ridiculous sentence, judge is just setting an example and therefore a lot harsher than needs to be.

the_syco

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

He inconvenienced some gamers, boo hoo.

Also Mudd also "targeted up to 70 schools and colleges, including the University of Cambridge, University of Essex and University of East Anglia, as well as local councils".

Also, it looks to be more like 5 years?;

“Today, he was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment for his own DDoS attacks, nine months for running a titanium stressor service and 24 months for money laundering the proceeds made from the stressor service, all to run concurrently,” reads a press release issued by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU), an anti-cybercrime unit that worked with the U.K.’s National Crime Agency to investigate Mudd.

Andrew76

the_syco wrote: »

Also Mudd also "targeted up to 70 schools and colleges, including the University of Cambridge, University of Essex and University of East Anglia, as well as local councils".

Also, it looks to be more like 5 years?;

"all to run concurrently" means the sentences​ all run at the same time, so 24 months is the max length.

Varik

the_syco wrote: »

Also Mudd also "targeted up to 70 schools and colleges, including the University of Cambridge, University of Essex and University of East Anglia, as well as local councils".

Also, it looks to be more like 5 years?;

Concurrently mean at the same time, so it's only 2 years.

Hate when Judges do that, I know it's the UK but they do it here and I wish they were stopped from doing it.

The hate on the internet is strong for this guy to a point where you would swear he'd fiddled some kids, lets not forget he was what 16 at the time, ok made a fair bit of money but still a kid himself. I know when I was that age I did some pretty stupid stuff.

His crime is really one against a first world luxury in that gaming networks were attacked as a result of his software. Levels of out rage on this level should be reserved for proper criminals and not because we couldn't log on to gaming services for a few days.

kunst nugget

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The hate on the internet is strong for this guy to a point where you would swear he'd fiddled some kids, lets not forget he was what 16 at the time, ok made a fair bit of money but still a kid himself. I know when I was that age I did some pretty stupid stuff.

His crime is really one against a first world luxury in that gaming networks were attacked as a result of his software. Levels of out rage on this level should be reserved for proper criminals and not because we couldn't log on to gaming services for a few days.

Tbh, the gaming networks wouldn't be the issue for me at all.

Creamy Goodness

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The hate on the internet is strong for this guy to a point where you would swear he'd fiddled some kids, lets not forget he was what 16 at the time, ok made a fair bit of money but still a kid himself. I know when I was that age I did some pretty stupid stuff.

His crime is really one against a first world luxury in that gaming networks were attacked as a result of his software. Levels of out rage on this level should be reserved for proper criminals and not because we couldn't log on to gaming services for a few days.

We don't swear he fiddled kids. People who do way worse get even more lenient sentences. Doesn't mean this guy should too.

ArthurG

Potential-Monke wrote: »

When i initially heard he had autism, i was sceptical about the sentencing.........

No idea how genuine his condition is, however it does seem that 'autism' is the affliction of choice for hackers. I certainly hope it is genuine, as I find the possibility that autism is being co-opted as a handy defence for hackers as highly distasteful.

Canis Lupus

I hope when he's in prison they allow him internet access but fix it so every page he tries to load times out or redirects to cloudflare errors.

bucketybuck

Deleted User wrote: »

Levels of out rage on this level should be reserved for proper criminals

He is a proper criminal. Convicted and everything, he is literally a proper criminal.

Dyr

Deleted User wrote: »

The hate on the internet is strong for this guy to a point where you would swear he'd fiddled some kids, lets not forget he was what 16 at the time, ok made a fair bit of money but still a kid himself. I know when I was that age I did some pretty stupid stuff.

His crime is really one against a first world luxury in that gaming networks were attacked as a result of his software. Levels of out rage on this level should be reserved for proper criminals and not because we couldn't log on to gaming services for a few days.

tbh if ye asked most kids today which was the more serious crime, fiddling them or bringing down the PSN network they'd probably choose the latter

The_Valeyard

He made a lot of cash ruining people's free time and making life difficult for others.

Two years seems reasonable to me.

Potential-Monke

I know some people believe that it's a bit harsh, but even taking into account his age (16, not a child) and even taking into consideration that he has autism (but it doesn't state where on the spectrum he is, seems to be a fully functioning autistic to me if he's able to create code, hack and launder money), he still done something highly illegal, and it's more the potential damage and cost he could cause in the future is the reason for the sentence. A light sentence probably wouldn't have deterred him from doing it again. Now, he might think twice. And not only that, but it cost the companies millions to fix/prevent. You think that money won't affect the quality of games/services coming from these companies? They have to find it somewhere, and that'll mean cut corners surely.

kunst nugget

I think the 'lol, gamerz first world problems' angle is a bit daft tbh. He was also targeting schools, colleges and other organisations that I'm sure weren't swimming in cash and caused them awful problems. He was also selling on his software to other people to do with what they please and I'm sure they caused a hell of a lot of hassle to others as well. I think the 2 year sentence is pretty lenient.

the_syco

Andrew76 wrote: »

"all to run concurrently" means the sentences​ all run at the same time, so 24 months is the max length.

Ah. Got mixed up with consecutive. My bad

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

bucketybuck wrote: »

He is a proper criminal. Convicted and everything, he is literally a proper criminal.

What exactly is a "proper criminal", one convicted of a crime you deem serious enough?

Do you mean a serious criminal? From the link, he doesn't seem to be violent or a danger to the public, just deemed a pain in the arse. Companies lost money, which is the issue here. If his software was targeting us poor joes, I doubt a case would even be built.

kunst nugget wrote: »

I think the 'lol, gamerz first world problems' angle is a bit daft tbh. He was also targeting schools, colleges and other organisations that I'm sure weren't swimming in cash and caused them awful problems. He was also selling on his software to other people to do with what they please and I'm sure they caused a hell of a lot of hassle to others as well. I think the 2 year sentence is pretty lenient.

It's a DDOS attack, unless he supplied other malicious software to harvest software etc, it's hardly the crime of the century. 2 years is a long time for this young person to pay. Companies suffered a monetary loss, that's terrible for SMB's, but it's money.

Also, did he actually carry out the attacks or did he just provide the software to do so?

"Ruining peoples free time" Jesus wept... Like the only thing one could possibly do in their free time is play playstation. That's incredibly sad.

Servers are down, well that sucks, go do something else or play another game/console if possible.

Personally I hope the 2 years in jail don't completely turn him and he puts his incredible talents into something positive when he's released. It's some achievement for a 16 year old (building the program).

the_syco

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

It's a DDOS attack, unless he supplied other malicious software to harvest software etc, it's hardly the crime of the century. 2 years is a long time for this young person to pay. Companies suffered a monetary loss, that's terrible for SMB's, but it's money.

Not sure. You could get a "free 60 second trial".

He's logged 1.7 million attacks.

_CreeD_

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

What exactly is a "proper criminal", one convicted of a crime you deem serious enough?

Companies suffered a monetary loss, that's terrible for SMB's, but it's money.

Also, did he actually carry out the attacks or did he just provide the software to do so?

"Ruining peoples free time" Jesus wept... Like the only thing one could possibly do in their free time is play playstation. That's incredibly sad.

Servers are down, well that sucks, go do something else or play another game/console if possible.

Personally I hope the 2 years in jail don't completely turn him and he puts his incredible talents into something positive when he's released. It's some achievement for a 16 year old (building the program).

It's not up to you to judge what is and is not valuable to the people or businesses impacted. Cry 'QQ' all you want, he broke the law, cost businesses a great deal of money and denied services to a great many people who worked hard to pay for them in the first place. Again, it does not matter what YOU think of those services, they paid for them with money time and effort that 'Incredible talent' or not he made a conscious decision to deny in a malicious way, and profit from it.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

the_syco wrote: »

Not sure. You could get a "free 60 second trial".

He's logged 1.7 million attacks.

No, he's responsible for 1.7 million attacks, he didn't actually do all the attacking. You missed this part "also by other criminals who had rented the service".

_CreeD_ wrote: »

It's not up to you to judge what is and is not valuable to the people or businesses impacted. Cry 'QQ' all you want, he broke the law, cost businesses a great deal of money and denied services to a great many people who worked hard to pay for them in the first place. Again, it does not matter what YOU think of those services, they paid for them with money time and effort that 'Incredible talent' or not he made a conscious decision to deny in a malicious way, and profit from it.

I am not judging what is valuable to people, but I am entitled to my opinion. I am pointing out the irrational response and sentencing for a crime which, as you so put it, only "denied people services". Is it normal to put a minor in prison for inconveniencing people and causing financial loss for a business?

The argument here is not that he did or did not break the law, it's pretty clear that he broke the law and should be held accountable for his actions. 2 years jail time does not match the crime. He's not a danger to the public and he is not violent, he should not be serving time in jail.

Sieghardt

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

No, he's responsible for 1.7 million attacks, he didn't actually do all the attacking. You missed this part "also by other criminals who had rented the service".



I am not judging what is valuable to people, but I am entitled to my opinion. I am pointing out the irrational response and sentencing for a crime which, as you so put it, only "denied people services". Is it normal to put a minor in prison for inconveniencing people and causing financial loss for a business?

The argument here is not that he did or did not break the law, it's pretty clear that he broke the law and should be held accountable for his actions. 2 years jail time does not match the crime. He's not a danger to the public and he is not violent, he should not be serving time in jail.

Yes, causing financial loss and demanding payment to cease causing that loss is a crime worthy of prison. It's exactly what organized crime does ffs, it's extortion

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Sieghardt wrote: »

Yes, causing financial loss and demanding payment to cease causing that loss is a crime worthy of prison. It's exactly what organized crime does ffs, it's extortion

Yea, but is this what he did? Or just create the program?

It's a one man show, not powerful and not on a large scale. It's not organised crime. Nice try though.

gizmo

From the article on The Register about the case...

Jagex, the company behind MMORPG Runescape, reportedly spent £6m trying to fend off Titanium Stresser attacks. Mudd himself attacked the site 593 times

I haven't seen anything about him demanding payment to cease the attacks but given the pricing and usage scheme he setup for users, the lengths he went to to hide the payments made to him for said services and the fact he initially lied about its original purpose, I'm not particularly surprised he got hit with the sentence he did.

B.A._Baracus

Hacking is a bit of a weird thing...

Like let's all be honest, if someone hacks to gain money we all get it. Doesn't mean we agree with it but you see the goal. Thing is, all well and good making great money until you get caught. So I dunno.

But truth be told tho for every one hacker that gets caught what, a thousand don't?

bucketybuck

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

What exactly is a "proper criminal", one convicted of a crime you deem serious enough?

"Proper criminal" was the expression used by Deleted User, why don't you ask him what he meant by it.

I believe by using those words Deleted User meant to imply that this guy wasn't a real criminal at all, something that is factually and demonstrably incorrect.

Sieghardt

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

Yea, but is this what he did? Or just create the program?

It's a one man show, not powerful and not on a large scale. It's not organised crime. Nice try though.

It's not a one man show, it's a group of 7 and it shows what you know about the case

Potential-Monke

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

"Ruining peoples free time" Jesus wept... Like the only thing one could possibly do in their free time is play playstation. That's incredibly sad.

Ok, i'm going to try my best to not make this personal, and it's not intended to, so sorry if it comes across as personal...

How dare you tell me i'm incredibly sad. Who are you to tell me what and what not to do with my time. I'm a gamer, it's my only passion, i've no interest in sports, tv, drinking, cards, stamps, whatever. Gaming is my thing. As gaming is my only passion/past time/hobby, i like to game when i can. I can understand servers down for maintenance, but when it's attacked, it's bloody annoying, as it's not the companies fault, it's some little stuck up shit who thinks he's great ruining my good times. I fine it highly offensive that you think that because this is what i want to do with my free time that i'm sad because of it. Your life must be so great to know that you don't have to game when some punk decides to take down the central element to having fun. I've nothing against you personally, but that is the kind of BS we hear from stupid parents and the media when it comes to gaming. That kind of comment sets back gaming as a legitimate passion, and relegates it to the kids corner.

That's like me saying that anyone who wants a pint but can't because some scum trashed the bar and gets annoyed over it is leading a sad life, because there's plenty other bars out there. I know for myself, there are a handful of bars i'll go to because they have the right atmosphere, aren't full of kids or drunken fools, etc.

I'm sick of it. Gaming is (from the most recent article i can be bothered finding right now, from 2016) the 4th largest entertainment industry. It's legit, and no one, NO ONE, has the right to call anyone else sad because of that.

/rant

aaronjumper

What a post.

bucketybuck

bucketybuck wrote: »

"Proper criminal" was the expression used by Deleted User, why don't you ask him what he meant by it.

I believe by using those words Deleted User meant to imply that this guy wasn't a real criminal at all, something that is factually and demonstrably incorrect.

Not what I was implying either, of course he's a criminal. Courts found him guilty , sentence imposed, justice served. just speaking in the context of the general OTT outrage and outright hatred surrounding him online in general purely because of one of the many crimes he committed took or aided taking down gaming networks, take those out of the equation there would barely be a mention of him or an eyebrow raised regarding his attacking schools , small businesses etc. that could least afford these kinds of attacks.

I also mentioned his age earlier and that a lot of us were idiots at that age, I don't disagree with the sentence but I feel it should have been dealt with faster and not have taken 4 years to lock him up now at the age of 20, which by now there is a possibility he could be putting what ever skills and intellect to better use.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

bucketybuck wrote: »

"Proper criminal" was the expression used by Deleted User, why don't you ask him what he meant by it.

I believe by using those words Deleted User meant to imply that this guy wasn't a real criminal at all, something that is factually and demonstrably incorrect.

Aha, well he is a criminal, that's for sure.

Sieghardt wrote: »

It's not a one man show, it's a group of 7 and it shows what you know about the case

One or 7, it's not organised crime. You are right though, I don't know every detail about the case.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Ok, i'm going to try my best to not make this personal, and it's not intended to, so sorry if it comes across as personal...

How dare you tell me i'm incredibly sad. Who are you to tell me what and what not to do with my time. I'm a gamer, it's my only passion, i've no interest in sports, tv, drinking, cards, stamps, whatever. Gaming is my thing. As gaming is my only passion/past time/hobby, i like to game when i can. I can understand servers down for maintenance, but when it's attacked, it's bloody annoying, as it's not the companies fault, it's some little stuck up shit who thinks he's great ruining my good times. I fine it highly offensive that you think that because this is what i want to do with my free time that i'm sad because of it. Your life must be so great to know that you don't have to game when some punk decides to take down the central element to having fun. I've nothing against you personally, but that is the kind of BS we hear from stupid parents and the media when it comes to gaming. That kind of comment sets back gaming as a legitimate passion, and relegates it to the kids corner.

That's like me saying that anyone who wants a pint but can't because some scum trashed the bar and gets annoyed over it is leading a sad life, because there's plenty other bars out there. I know for myself, there are a handful of bars i'll go to because they have the right atmosphere, aren't full of kids or drunken fools, etc.

I'm sick of it. Gaming is (from the most recent article i can be bothered finding right now, from 2016) the 4th largest entertainment industry. It's legit, and no one, NO ONE, has the right to call anyone else sad because of that.

/rant

Woah there cowboy, try not make a mountain out of a molehill You're right, it's quite the rant and from my perspective it's quite incoherent. I didn't say you in particular are very sad, but having no other interest apart from gaming, in my opinion is quite sad.

Nobody is questioning gaming as a legitimate passion, actually, the topic of conversation is the prison term the hacker received, which is quite OTT.

So when the servers go down, and you're annoyed, what do you do? Sit and stare at the wall? It's very difficult to believe that somebody can only have one interest, you don't watch films or a tv series/cartoons, board/card games, RC vehicles?

Wanting somebody to go to jail because you couldn't play playstation is laughable.

the_syco

Sieghardt wrote: »

It's not a one man show, it's a group of 7 and it shows what you know about the case

It was a one man show. The lizard group was a spin-off.

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

Yea, but is this what he did? Or just create the program?

It's a one man show, not powerful and not on a large scale. It's not organised crime. Nice try though.

He created the program, and then did others bidding. He was essentially a "gun for hire".

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

So when the servers go down, and you're annoyed, what do you do?

Personally, do something else. When a banking/company server goes down, no-one can use the bank. Banks/company share price drops, and people can profit from buying the shares cheaply. If part of a larger attack, whilst the server is being hit, someone else can get in and steak info, money, etc.

Game servers are the ones that admit getting attacked, as they can blame the hacker for down-time.

Banks rarely admit being hacking, likewise with businesses.

SeantheMan

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Hacking is a bit of a weird thing...

Like let's all be honest, if someone hacks to gain money we all get it. Doesn't mean we agree with it but you see the goal. Thing is, all well and good making great money until you get caught. So I dunno.

But truth be told tho for every one hacker that gets caught what, a thousand don't?

I don't get it ? What exactly are you saying or what is your point ?
Your take on hacking can be applied to ANY criminal activity.
We all know why people (-insert crime here-) (e.g. Rob banks, assassinate people, kidnap people etc etc)

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

Woah there cowboy, try not make a mountain out of a molehill You're right, it's quite the rant and from my perspective it's quite incoherent. I didn't say you in particular are very sad, but having no other interest apart from gaming, in my opinion is quite sad.

You've played WOW on and off for 11 years. Are you sure you have other interests ?

Nothing wrong with gaming being your main interest, nothing sad about it.
The same way people love music or films or soccer. Gaming is more popular than all of them.

listermint

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

Aha, well he is a criminal, that's for sure.



One or 7, it's not organised crime. You are right though, I don't know every detail about the case.



Woah there cowboy, try not make a mountain out of a molehill You're right, it's quite the rant and from my perspective it's quite incoherent. I didn't say you in particular are very sad, but having no other interest apart from gaming, in my opinion is quite sad.

Nobody is questioning gaming as a legitimate passion, actually, the topic of conversation is the prison term the hacker received, which is quite OTT.

So when the servers go down, and you're annoyed, what do you do? Sit and stare at the wall? It's very difficult to believe that somebody can only have one interest, you don't watch films or a tv series/cartoons, board/card games, RC vehicles?

Wanting somebody to go to jail because you couldn't play playstation is laughable.

Man goes into a bar during closing hours gets paid to destroy the place, ruins the bar so customers cannot use it.

Does this over 500 times.

Bar spends over 6 million pound on security and returns.

Man is caught

Does man deserve prison?

kunst nugget

Collins Squeaking Software wrote: »

I didn't say you in particular are very sad, but having no other interest apart from gaming, in my opinion is quite sad.

Wanting somebody to go to jail because you couldn't play playstation is laughable.

I think you're unnecessarily being a dick about this.

johnny_ultimate

Mod note - Keep it civil please. Several unnecessarily hostile posts here.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

the_syco wrote: »

It was a one man show. The lizard group was a spin-off.

Ho ho ho, touché Mr. Sieghardt.

Personally, do something else. When a banking/company server goes down, no-one can use the bank. Banks/company share price drops, and people can profit from buying the shares cheaply. If part of a larger attack, whilst the server is being hit, someone else can get in and steak info, money, etc.

Sorry Syco, that question was specifically directed at Potentialy-Monke as he stated "As gaming is my only passion/past time/hobby"

Game servers are the ones that admit getting attacked, as they can blame the hacker for down-time.

Banks rarely admit being hacking, likewise with businesses.[/QUOTE]

I'd only have sympathy for SMB's to be honest, banks are the last organisation I would have any sympathy for.

SeantheMan wrote: »

You've played WOW on and off for 11 years. Are you sure you have other interests ?

Nothing wrong with gaming being your main interest, nothing sad about it.
The same way people love music or films or soccer. Gaming is more popular than all of them.

Yea, so you completely missed the point here yourself. Nowhere was it mentioned that gaming as a main hobby/interest is sad.

listermint wrote: »

Man goes into a bar during closing hours gets paid to destroy the place, ruins the bar so customers cannot use it.

Does this over 500 times.

Bar spends over 6 million pound on security and returns.

Man is caught

Does man deserve prison?

Bar is stupid, bar probably shouldn't be open.

Was there any company/organisation involved that was the victim of 500 attacks and lost £6,000,000? Or is it possible that you have exaggerated your analogy to strengthen your argument?