Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Teen pleads guilty to phone hack

The 17-year-old in Massachusetts has a self-professed history of hacks and violent threats. He not only pleaded guilty to hacking into Paris Hilton's cellphone account, he also told the Washington Post he made bomb threats at two high schools, broke into a phone company's computer system to set up free accounts for friends, and participated in a well-known data theft at LexisNexis that exposed more than 300,000 people's personal records. Prosecutors in the case say his actions caused victims about $1 million in damages. He was sentenced to 11 months' detention at a juvenile facility, and when he turns 18 he'll "undergo two years of supervised release in which he will be barred from possessing or using any computer, cell phone or other electronic equipment capable of accessing the Internet." The Post tells the story of how he and fellow hackers - known as the "'Defonic Team Screen Name Club' or 'DFNCTSC' for short" - carried out their exploits.

2 comments:

  1. The boy is a genius,he could have succeeded at almost anything,didnt his parents have any idea?Morals and behavior standards should be taught in schools,and long term supervision is needed .Besides the damage that has been done,the legal costs are high and the prison costs60K$/Yr. The taxpayer/working man pays eventually.

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  2. You're probably right, Anonymous. I imagine he is a genius. One just hopes he comes through his sentence with the understanding that he can do some really good things with it.

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