Teen Convicted of Crashing PlayStation Web Site

[El Kontakt]

From: Kotaku



In late 2008, a
Pennsylvania teenager playing SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals got kicked out of a
tournament for using a cheat mod. So he took revenge by crashing the
PlayStation web site for 11 days.

Sony got the last laugh, however, in the form of a federal grand jury
investigation, which quickly led to the perpetrator, a high school
honors student in Latrobe, Pa. The hacker pled guilty to four felony
charges in juvie court. Reports say he got access to the site's servers
and let loose a virus that brought everything down.

His methods weren't described in detail but an expert contacted by a
local TV station said they weren't so sophisticated that someone else
couldn't pull it off. I bet Sony has stronger protections in place now,
though.

The teen pleaded guilty to four counts: unlawful use of a computer,
criminal use of a computer, computer trespassing and the distribution of
a computer virus, in exchange for prosecutors dropping 11 others, some
related to a March 2009 cyber attack.

Kudos to WTAE-TV of Pittsburgh for not only getting the name of the
game (it was left out of other reports), but also using the correct
console in its footage - although I'm wondering what those shots of
Madden have to do with it.