{"id":3381,"date":"2017-04-26T09:08:48","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T16:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kmtechblog.com\/?p=3381"},"modified":"2017-04-26T09:08:48","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T16:08:48","slug":"teen-hacker-behind-microsoft-sony-hacks-gets-light-two-year-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmtech.blog\/?p=3381","title":{"rendered":"Teen hacker behind Microsoft and Sony hacks gets a light two-year sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I think about who might be responsible for nearly two million attacks on websites and services costing companies millions of dollars, I\u2019m not sure who I picture. But it\u2019s not Adam Mudd, the teen responsible for 1.7 million attacks on services like Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. According to\u00a0The Guardian<\/em>, Mudd has been sentenced to two years in prison for his hacking-related crimes.<\/p>\n

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Mudd was 16 when he created the Titanium Stresser program,\u00a0which\u00a0has been used by more than 112,000 users against \u201cabout 666,000\u201d IP addresses. Mudd raked in almost half a million dollars in money and bitcoins from those using his program. An attack on his own university cost the school over $2,500 just to investigate the hack, on top of all the lost productivity and any other damages that may have been caused indirectly by his activity. The fantasy game\u00a0RuneScape<\/em> was another of Mudd\u2019s targets, and\u00a0The Guardian<\/em> says Mudd\u2019s attacks resulted in a revenue loss of over $230,000. The company spent an additional $7.5 million beefing up security as a result of the attacks. While that money may have been spent eventually, Mudd forced the issue.<\/p>\n

The cyber world of online gaming<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mudd\u2019s attorney characterized him as someone more interested in status and finding a community than in the material gains resulting from the program. Now 20, Mudd was arrested when he was 18, and was still living with his parents at the time. His attorney asked for a suspended sentence, explaining that Mudd \u201chad been sucked into the cyber world of online gaming and was \u2018lost in an alternate reality\u2019 after withdrawing from school because of bullying.\u201d Mudd has been offline for two years, which his attorney called \u201can unhappy time\u201d for the defendant, \u201cduring which he suffered greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge refused, stating a duty to the public who are \u201cworried about this, damaged by this all the time.\u201d And come on, \u2018the cyber world of online gaming?\u2019 Is this an episode of\u00a0Law & Order<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Despite that seeming commitment to punishing Mudd, his sentence is the two years listed above.\u00a0The Guardian<\/em> lists services like\u00a0Minecraft<\/em>, Xbox Live, and TeamSpeak among those targeted. With so many companies and people affected by his program, a two-year sentence seems pretty light. At least we\u2019re still seeing a hacker held accountable for their crimes.<\/p>\n