BankrollMob Poker News
dec
8

Teen Sentenced To 1 Year In Prison For Cyber-Attack On Gambling Website
Tags: cyber-attack, ddos attack.
Posted on 08 December 2015 by "T".

A teenager in the United Kingdom has been sentenced for his cyber-attack on an online gambling website which led to an estimate loss of £18,000.

According to a report from the Daily Express, the 19-year-old teenager, Max Whitehouse, showed up on November 20, 2015 before the Nottingham Crown Court and confessed to flooding the website with a huge amount of virtual traffic to the point that it could no longer operate for a while.

He found it all very easy to bypass the online security of the gambling site and proceeded to launch a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, causing the site's operations to go down and as a result, lose substantial thousands of pounds.

The judge sentenced him to 12 months in prison for his actions; however, it was suspended for 1 year. The judge said, "He has been living a virtual life and not a real life. He needed to get out more and play rugby or something."

The judge also added, "You need to get out more and live. You were, at the relevant time, extremely naive. I am satisfied you had no intention whatsoever of selling or distributing any of those items. Your object was to see if you could do it. You were living your life through a screen, rather than outside. But I believe sending you to custody would be highly damaging and retrograde." The teen broke down in tears.

The police conducted a search of his house and in his bedroom they found a stash of weapons such as tear gas canisters, a stun gun disguised as an iPhone, as well as 8 knuckledusters - all bought online from China; however, the court apparently agreed with the statement by the defense lawyer that the teen was "a hoarder of weapons, rather than someone with any criminal intent".

Whitehouse was also ordered to surrender his weapons and present £200 as payment towards the costs of the prosecution.

Investigators have found out that 2 years before the attack, Whitehouse (age 17 at that time), had announced in his mother's Twitter account about his plan for the DDoS-style attack against a particular online company.
The gambling website that suffered from the cyber attack has remained anonymous to the public.

source: Daily Express

 

« Poker News   /   Comment on this news »

Related Articles:

11 comments on "Teen Sentenced To 1 Year In Prison For Cyber-Attack On Gambling Website"


 pochui08/12/2015 09:55:58 GMT
ah well at least that sites security team can sleep calmly knowing that they are hopeless and a new career as toilet cleaners awaits them. oh and btw that teens brain should be exploited in order to help other companies to prevent similar attacks. or he can just be sent to clean the toilets as well... what? somebody need to do that, UK cannot be a country of sh1tty toilets...
 Skpmorita08/12/2015 13:02:57 GMT
i love the judge ruling
no need to destroy this kid life
he didn't steal any money , i am sure he just want show off his skills at hacking
not knowing the consequences , but i still believe he should be pay off the loses
now he won't get to any trouble i am sure
 Ingrind3308/12/2015 15:01:54 GMT
hmm...
Very good to lock a kid up in an environment of real criminals, murderers, scammers and rapists.
These lovely fellow inmates will have ZERO positive influence of the boys mind.
He will likely meet someone who needs a "wizkid" for his plan. The boy will have enough time to make up a nice huge scam in collaboration with his new friend: mister inmate.

Long live lady justice. Angry
 bowie198409/12/2015 01:01:05 GMT
Posted by pochui:
oh and btw that teens brain should be exploited in order to help other companies to prevent similar attacks. or he can just be sent to clean the toilets as well... what? somebody need to do that, UK cannot be a country of sh1tty toilets...

DDoS is actually the most inexpensive and easiest way to mess around with somebody's webpage (even u or i could actually do it tbh...) so this kid is hardly a rocket scientist rather somebody who is spending half of his day on 4chan.
 klash2309/12/2015 12:50:42 GMT
Deja Vu on this subject as I posted this story a while ago.I think the sentence was very lenient,this would have cost the poker site thousands of pounds,if a thief had stolen that amount of money he would go to prison.This guy does has the potential for more serious crimes and instead of giving a suspended sentence which is meaningless he should have been given probation/supervision order so the authorities could at least monitor him in the future.
 marqis09/12/2015 13:46:32 GMT
I don't see how you can set up a DDos attack without either paying for the use of a bot-network that carries out the attack, or creating a bot network yourself, and in the process intentionally infecting thousands of computers with a virus, in order to gain control over them. He could not just do this from his own computer (it would not be DDos otherwise).

Neither can be thought of a the actions of a misguided teen "who just wanted to see if he could do it". How is this not malicious?

I think the judge may not appreciate what is involved, though technically relatively simple, it takes some doing (or money) to successfully carry out such an attack.
 STACIONAR09/12/2015 22:37:29 GMT
That such to make, it is given not everyone, it is cruel to judge the guy and it isn't correct, he after all can with such knowledge and abilities to help the state, and there perhaps and noticed for such...)
 bowie198410/12/2015 01:04:14 GMT
Posted by marqis:
I don't see how you can set up a DDos attack without either paying for the use of a bot-network that carries out the attack, or creating a bot network yourself, and in the process intentionally infecting thousands of computers with a virus, in order to gain control over them. He could not just do this from his own computer (it would not be DDos otherwise).

Again neither things u mentioned above is hard-to-do nor impossible for somebody with time and a lil' effort and many botnets are for rent, u shouldn't even reach the deep web for them nowadays tbh...
 marqis10/12/2015 17:04:49 GMT
Posted by bowie1984:
Posted by marqis:
I don't see how you can set up a DDos attack without either paying for the use of a bot-network that carries out the attack, or creating a bot network yourself, and in the process intentionally infecting thousands of computers with a virus, in order to gain control over them. He could not just do this from his own computer (it would not be DDos otherwise).

Again neither things u mentioned above is hard-to-do nor impossible for somebody with time and a lil' effort and many botnets are for rent, u shouldn't even reach the deep web for them nowadays tbh...

My point is not that it's hard to do, but that the judge makes light of it by classifying it as "naive". I think hiring a bot network is not naive, but malicious. The same goes for creating your own bot network.

Maybe he found a way to bring down the site with a Dos attack (from a single internet connection) rather than a DDos attack (from many internet connections), and the news reported it as DDos erroneously. That would make more sense...
 crash5811/12/2015 20:42:48 GMT
I agree with the suspended sentence, he really didn't do a crime worth one year in jail.
And i don't think he should pay any losses they incurred
Since it would only be estimated losses.
It's good that he pay court cost's , to help teach him a bit of a lesson.
But, i have a feeling, this kid will be back in court.
Some lesson's are never learned.
 klash2312/12/2015 14:39:16 GMT
In the UK there are much more sentences available for a guy like this,especially as he obviously has some issues and giving a suspended sentence is a soft option.If he does the same offence again the sentences would be concurrent.
Attacks like these could destroy a business,especially one where customers are concerned with security and reliability.I think the sentence would be much different if he did this to a government site or a financial organisation.

Write a comment:

You must be logged in, to comment on news...

Disclosure: BankrollMob may earn a commission based on the advertisement material on this site. #AD
© 2024 BankrollMob.com - All Rights Reserved CONTACT | ABOUT | PRIVACY & COOKIE POLICY | TERMS & CONDITIONS | NEWSLETTER | AFFILIATES | REPORT SPAM | ADVERTISING
  Please Play Responsibly