'Mafiaboy' sentenced to eight months' detention

'Mafiaboy,' the Canadian teenager responsible for a series of massive Distributed Denial of Service attacks in February 2000, was sentenced to eight months' detention by a Canadian judge in Quebec Thursday (US time).

          "Mafiaboy," the Canadian teenager responsible for a series of massive Distributed Denial of Service attacks in February 2000, was sentenced to eight months' detention by a Canadian judge in Quebec Thursday (US time), according to Robert Currie, leader of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) Computer Investigative Support Unit in Montreal.

          Mafiaboy had faced up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $US650.

          Mafiaboy's sentence is actually two consecutive four-month sentences, says Currie, who also worked on the investigation into Mafiaboy's crimes. The sentence requires Mafiaboy to spend those eight months in open custody, which is essentially a strict reform school in which the population can gain privileges through good behaviour, Currie says. The alternative, closed custody, is more like juvenile detention, he says.

          In addition, Mafiaboy will be on probation for one year, Currie says. The terms of that probation include that Mafiaboy must advise the RCMP of what ISP (internet service provider) or other communication service he is using to access the internet, even if it is the account of a friend, relative or employer, Currie says. Mafiaboy is also barred from owning any software that is not commercially available, from associating with cracker (malicious hacker) groups online or offline and from visiting hacking websites, Currie says.

          He must also have a job or be in school and cannot receive financial benefit from his crimes through books, movies or speaking engagements, Currie says. At the end of the year's probation, if Mafiaboy has followed these guidelines, the probation will be terminated, Currie says.

          The now-17-year-old cracker, known only as Mafiaboy because Canadian law prevents the naming of underage offenders, pled guilty in January to 55 counts of mischief in connection to the Distributed Denial of Service attacks that brought down CNN.com, Yahoo.com, Amazon.com and other major websites in February 2000. In total, 11 sites were knocked offline for between hours and days, causing substantial losses.

          A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is one in which false requests for service are sent to target systems so frequently that they are overloaded and are unable to answer legitimate traffic requests. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), as was used by Mafiaboy, is one in which multiple computers worldwide are taken over and used to launch DoS attack. The distributed nature of such attacks makes them more damaging and harder to block.

          Mafiaboy's exploits were among the first massive and well-publicised DDoS attacks and have led to substantial industry focus on the problem of Denial of Service attacks and how to combat them. A number of companies have arisen in the wake of Mafiaboy's attacks to offer products to aid in the detection and blocking of such attacks.

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.

Tags hacking

More about Amazon.comAmazon Web ServicesCNNYahoo

Show Comments
[]