'Mafiaboy' faces 64 new charges, pleads not guilty

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/30/ns-17100.html

Fri, 04 Aug 2000 09:14:34 GMT
Reuters

Accused teenage hacker pleads 'not guilty' to 64 new charges related
to the jamming of sites such as Yahoo!, CNN.com and eBay

A 16-year-old Canadian hacker dubbed "Mafiaboy" pleaded not guilty
Thursday to mischief charges related to the jamming of high-profile
Web sites such as Yahoo!, CNN.com and eBay last February, crimes that
served as a global wake-up call to the Internet's fragility.

The Montreal-area teen, who cannot be identified under a Canadian law
designed to protect young offenders, appeared tense as his lawyer
registered the not guilty pleas at the Quebec Court Youth Chamber in
Montreal, shortly after the prosecution added 64 new charges against
him.

Mafiaboy, whose computer skills have been described by police as far
from extraordinary, was initially charged with two counts of mischief
related to a cyber-attack in February on CNN.com.

More charges were laid after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
discovered evidence linking him to attacks the same day on five other
Web sites -- Yahoo! Amazon.com e-Bay.com, Dell.com and Outlawnet.com.
The attacks flooded the sites with traffic and left them inaccessible
for hours.

Ten of the new charges are for mischief against the five Web sites,
and the 54 others relate to illegal use of computer systems, mainly in
US universities, Quebec prosecutor Louis Miville-Deschenes said
outside the court.

"General deterrence will be a sentencing factor to be considered," the
prosecutor said. "There was real physical damage to the computers of
those companies, investigations had to be set up, there is a loss of
confidence in the public toward this technology and loss of revenues."

Mafiaboy was arrested by the Mounties in April after three months of
extensive phone and computer taps and following tips from informants,
the prosecutor said.

"There is direct evidence placing him behind the computer,"
Miville-Deschenes said, adding the police investigation was now
completed and no other person is likely to be charged.

"The evidence that had to be sifted through was overwhelming. The
evidence clearly shows that he bragged about his act" in Internet chat
rooms and over the phone, he said.

If convicted, the teenager would face up to two years in a youth
detention centre.

He was released shortly after his arrest. One of the bail conditions
was that he not use a computer except for academic purposes and under
the supervision of a teacher.

"He is trying to keep up a normal life as possible given the
circumstances," said the youth's lawyer, Yan Romanowsky. "He has a
summer job in a restaurant, school is starting in September and he has
bail conditions he has to obey."

Mafiaboy will appear in court again on 28 September, when a trial date
will be set, Romanowsky said. "So far, it's only Canadian accusations.
We have not heard that there would be any American accusations," he
said.

The February attacks alarmed Internet users around the globe, cost Web
sites millions of dollars in revenue and shook the electronic commerce
industry because of the apparent ease with which major sites were
jammed.


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