Teen hacker gets a year's probation

A teen who bought down a worldwide gaming network has been sentenced to a year's probation and to perform 250 hours of community service.

The kid will also have to write a cheque to Sony for $5,000 in damages.

The teen, who cannot be named for legal reasons , faced four counts for planting a computer virus that caused Sony's gaming Web site to repeatedly crash between November 16-26, 2008.

A report into the kid said he otherwise led a normal life, was a good student and participated in school activities.


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www.cwjobs.co.ukHowever the whole thing was based on an obsession that the kid had with winning.

Rather than do it in the traditional US way of winning on the sports field or fighting in countries that do not have the same weapons ability, the teen burned the midnight oil playing computer games.

Coppers claimed that the teen crippled Sony's online PlayStation site in retaliation for being kicked off the site for cheating while playing a war game called SOCOM US Navy Seals.

He used hacker tools to contact a botnet and these were directed clog three games on the PlayStation site, causing it to crash and go off-line.

Sony wanted $33,200 in restitution, but the judge ruled that amount would be too excessive for the teen.

http://www.techeye.net/security/teen...ears-probation