Fairfield Hacker 'Bytes' More than Can Chew, Put Behind Bars

During the concluding week of September 2007, a Fairfield local who was charged of cyber attack has been taken into custody, declared the US Counselor McGregor W. Scott on October 1, 2007. The lawsuit is being taken care of by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property department of the US Attorney Office.

The 21-year-old Greg King was indicted on four counts of offense relating electronic transmission of software intended to harm the secure machines. The October 3, 2007 edition of The Reporter reported functionaries handling the lawsuit stating that the FBI had probed King regarding the use of a "botnet" to penetrate computer servers.

According to the Indictment, King had utilized a "botnet" to strike secure computers. The term botnet refers to a group of computer servers of unwitting user's infected illegally with malware by a cyber-terrorist. The cyber-terrorist runs programs on the computers - also called "bots," "drones'' or "zombies," - controlled by his instructions.

The Associated Content on October 2, 2007, reported that the documents registered with the court alleged that King supposedly had over 7000 servers in his possession, which he utilized to execute several Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assaults. He masterminded computers under his command to initiate strikes against sites held by two companies.

Under the DDoS attack, a cyber-terrorist strikes instructing the network of compromised computers to flood the unsuspecting target's computer with requests containing thousands bits of data. This clogs the servers causing the usual traffic to either slow down or totally shutting down the site. It may take days before the damage can be rectified and the Websites can be restored.

On October 1, 2007, detectives closed in on the residence of King who has a number of cyber identities, such as GregK, Gregk707, sZ, Silenz420, and Silenz.

King allegedly hurried to the back entrance of his house holding a laptop, but was shortly nabbed and his laptop seized. After his arrest, King was supposed to appear before a federal judge in Sacramento's U.S. Eastern District Court.

King could be awarded a prison term of up to 10 years and forced to give a $250,000 penalty if convicted.

» SPAMfighter News - 10/19/2007