Category Archives: DerpTrolling

‘DerpTrolling’ attacks on gaming sites get Utah man 27 months in prison

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A federal judge has sentenced a young hacker from Utah to 27 months in prison for carrying out distributed denial-of-service attacks against Sony Online Entertainment and other online gaming companies in 2013 and 2014. The judge also ordered Austin Thompson, 23, to pay $95,000 for damages he caused to Sony Online Entertainment, which was sold and renamed Daybreak Game Company in 2015. Thompson gained notoriety using the Twitter handle DerpTrolling to announce online attacks that downed game servers around the world for hours. Thompson pleaded guilty in November. He had faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. A review of court records did not reveal why the judge opted for a more lenient sentence. On at least one occasion, Thompson reportedly used an open-source tool known as Low Orbit Ion Cannon. The tool started as an innocuous program for testing organizations’ networks, but has long been used […]

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Derp! DDoS attacker who brought down EA, Sony, and Steam jailed for 27 months

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A 23-year-old man has plenty of time to mull over whether it’s funny to launch distributed denial-of-service attacks against online services, after he was sentenced to prison this week. Austin Thompson, who called himself “DerpTrolling&#822… Continue reading Derp! DDoS attacker who brought down EA, Sony, and Steam jailed for 27 months→

DerpTrolling game server DDoS attacker pleads guilty

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Austin Thompson pleaded guilty on November 6 in a San Diego Federal court to knowingly causing damage to third-party computers. Continue reading DerpTrolling game server DDoS attacker pleads guilty→

Feds get guilty plea in ‘DerpTrolling’ attacks on video game sites

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The hacker who launched distributed denial-of-service attacks on Sony Online Entertainment and other online gaming companies in 2013 and 2014 pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern District of California announced this week. Prosecutors said 23-year-old Utah resident Austin Thompson caused at least $95,000 in damages by flooding the companies’ servers with internet traffic in order to take them offline between December 2013 and January 2014. He could receive up to 10 years in prison and is expected to pay a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for March 1. Thompson would use the Twitter account @DerpTrolling to announce his DDoS attacks in advance, federal prosecutors said, and then post screenshots of the victims’ servers that had been taken down in the aftermath. The attacks left game servers and other related computers around the world down for hours at a time. “Denial-of-service attacks cost businesses millions […]

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