indiegames
February 27th, 2010, 23:20
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2010/02/socom_-_u.s._navy_seals_coverart.jpgIn late 2008, a Pennsylvania teenager playing SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals got kicked out of a tournament for using a cheat mod. So he took revenge by crashing the PlayStation web site for 11 days.
Sony got the last laugh, however, in the form of a federal grand jury investigation, which quickly led to the perpetrator, a high school honors student in Latrobe, Pa. The hacker pled guilty to four felony charges in juvie court. Reports say he got access to the site's servers and let loose a virus that brought everything down.
His methods weren't described in detail but an expert contacted by a local TV station said they weren't so sophisticated that someone else couldn't pull it off. I bet Sony has stronger protections in place now, though.
The teen pleaded guilty to four counts: unlawful use of a computer, criminal use of a computer, computer trespassing and the distribution of a computer virus, in exchange for prosecutors dropping 11 others, some related to a March 2009 cyber attack.
Kudos to WTAE-TV of Pittsburgh for not only getting the name of the game (it was left out of other reports), but also using the correct console in its footage - although I'm wondering what those shots of Madden have to do with it.
Latrobe Teen Hacker Admits To Crashing Sony Game Site (http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/22670393/detail.html) [WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh]
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More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/ajds0ZEPN0s/teen-convicted-of-crashing-playstation-web-site-because-he-was-banned-for-cheating)
Sony got the last laugh, however, in the form of a federal grand jury investigation, which quickly led to the perpetrator, a high school honors student in Latrobe, Pa. The hacker pled guilty to four felony charges in juvie court. Reports say he got access to the site's servers and let loose a virus that brought everything down.
His methods weren't described in detail but an expert contacted by a local TV station said they weren't so sophisticated that someone else couldn't pull it off. I bet Sony has stronger protections in place now, though.
The teen pleaded guilty to four counts: unlawful use of a computer, criminal use of a computer, computer trespassing and the distribution of a computer virus, in exchange for prosecutors dropping 11 others, some related to a March 2009 cyber attack.
Kudos to WTAE-TV of Pittsburgh for not only getting the name of the game (it was left out of other reports), but also using the correct console in its footage - although I'm wondering what those shots of Madden have to do with it.
Latrobe Teen Hacker Admits To Crashing Sony Game Site (http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/22670393/detail.html) [WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh]
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1) http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=ajds0ZEPN0s:pIZTEEPBu6I:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=ajds0ZEPN0s:pIZTEEPBu6I:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=ajds0ZEPN0s:pIZTEEPBu6I:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=ajds0ZEPN0s:pIZTEEPBu6I:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=ajds0ZEPN0s:pIZTEEPBu6I:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=ajds0ZEPN0s:pIZTEEPBu6I:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/kotaku/full/~4/ajds0ZEPN0s
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/ajds0ZEPN0s/teen-convicted-of-crashing-playstation-web-site-because-he-was-banned-for-cheating)