Teenage hackers are offered a second chance under European experiment

European authorities are testing out the idea that not every cybercrime investigation has to end with a hacker in handcuffs. Police in the U.K. and the Netherlands have created a legal intervention campaign for first-time offenders accused of committing cybercrimes, officials explained Tuesday at the International Conference on Cybersecurity at Fordham University. The effort, called “Hack_Right,” is aimed at first-time offenders between 12 and 23 years old who may be skirting the law from behind their keyboard and not even realize it. The experiment, which began last year, already has involved interactions with more than 400 young people in the U.K., the officials said. “We do this … to get out and find them and get them into computing clubs before we have to investigate someone and lock them up,” said Gregory Francis, acting national prevent lead at the National Cyber Crime Unit of the National Crime Agency. “[Cybercrime] is not a law […]

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Courts Hand Down Hard Jail Time for DDoS

Seldom do people responsible for launching crippling cyberattacks face justice, but increasingly courts around the world are making examples of the few who do get busted for such crimes. On Friday, a 34-year-old Connecticut man received a whopping 10-y… Continue reading Courts Hand Down Hard Jail Time for DDoS

Leader of DDoS-for-Hire Gang Pleads Guilty to Bomb Threats

A 19-year-old man from the United Kingdom who headed a cybercriminal group whose motto was “Feds Can’t Touch Us” pleaded guilty this week to making bomb threats against thousands of schools.

On Aug. 31, officers with the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Hertfordshire resident George Duke-Cohan, who admitted making bomb threats to thousands of schools and a United Airlines flight traveling from the U.K. to San Francisco last month. Continue reading Leader of DDoS-for-Hire Gang Pleads Guilty to Bomb Threats

Leader of DDoS-for-Hire Gang Pleads Guilty to Bomb Threats

A 19-year-old man from the United Kingdom who headed a cybercriminal group whose motto was “Feds Can’t Touch Us” pleaded guilty this week to making bomb threats against thousands of schools.
On Aug. 31, officers with the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (N… Continue reading Leader of DDoS-for-Hire Gang Pleads Guilty to Bomb Threats

DDoS-for-Hire Service Webstresser Dismantled

Authorities in the U.S., U.K. and the Netherlands on Tuesday took down popular online attack-for-hire service WebStresser.org and arrested its alleged administrators. Investigators say that prior to the takedown, the service had more than 136,000 registered users and was responsible for launching somewhere between four and six million attacks over the past three years. Continue reading DDoS-for-Hire Service Webstresser Dismantled