Former Student Gets 30 Months For Political DDoS Attacks 486
wiredmikey writes "A former University of Akron student was sentenced Friday to 30 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release for conducting denial of service attacks on the sites of several prominent conservative figures as well as infecting several systems with botnet software. Mitchell L. Frost, age 23, of Bellevue, Ohio admitted that between August 2006 and March 2007, he initiated denial of service attacks on web servers hosting the sites of political commentators, including Bill O'Reilly, Rudy Giuliani, Ann Coulter, and others."
Jesus! 30 months!!? (Score:5, Informative)
That's seriously warped. Yes, what he did was wrong, but it's not like he permanently shut down the Internet.
30 months? Two and a half years? Damn, he should have just raped someone instead, he probably would have gotten less time and had a lot more fun in the process. I swear, I'm going to start voting against any politician that runs on being "tough on crime." It seems plenty tough enough as it is.
Two and a half years of someone's life, that's the price we demand now for some minor inconvenience? Damn, if I were his lawyer, I'd be tempted to appeal that for violation of the Eighth Amendment.
Re:Jesus! 30 months!!? (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah. I saw guys in the feds who were doing 20 years because someone else committed a crime and they knew about it. I know a limo driver now at Elkton who picked up a fare at JFK, the DEA pulled them over and found the fare's bags stuffed with cocaine and meth. The driver knew nothing about it, denied all knowledge, and went to trial with a public defender. He got 37 years and lost his appeal, and does not have the money for collateral attack. Did you know that after one appeal, you must now use civil remedies, like 28USC 2241 and 2255, and you are NOT entitled to counsel for them?
I did five years for what most would call, at best, a silly prank that hurt no one and caused neither property or financial loss.
Re:Fixed bad link...doh (Score:1, Informative)
Here's the real link: http://www.miami-criminal-lawyer.net/federal-sentencing-guidelines/2007guid/5a.html [miami-crim...lawyer.net]
Fuck URL shorteners. This isn't twitter, your post doesn't have to fit in 160 characters. The only thing they're useful for here is trolling. (How does anyone know you didn't just link to goatse?)
Re:Punishment (Score:3, Informative)
According to 18 USC 3553 [goo.gl] the judge MUST consider the issue of disparate punishment. So the judge does. And does what he/she wants anyway.
It's a HUGE business, the prison industry, and it needs a steady flow of bodies, which it easily gets.
Re:Jesus! 30 months!!? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:This is strange... (Score:4, Informative)
You know, you can look it up in PACER... ;) It's northern district of Ohio, case no. 10-cr-00216. He plead guilty to "counts 1 and 2" of the information (which I can't load, it's restricted).
This is from the *defense* counsel's sentencing brief: "Mitchell Frost . . . knowingly transmitted computer programs, codes, commands, and information which caused an interruption and otherwise disruption of vulnerable internet web sites, obtain passwords, account information, and other identifying information, causing a loss in excess of $5000.00. Through the use of mal-ware, Mitchell Frost also during this time knowingly possessed 15 or more counterfeit or unauthorized access devices, including 136 credit card accounts, PINs, and security codes, and close to 3000 user names and passwords for various computer systems or networks."
He got self-surrender, which suggests to me he may get a camp; he's serving less than 120 months, didn't get convicted of fraud involving telephones, and is otherwise not a security risk (deportable alien, etc)...
Re:Meanwhile, a cop gets 2 years (Score:2, Informative)
From what I remember hearing about the case on NPR a few months ago, the officer claimed that he was going for the taser but pulled the pistol instead. Apparently they have the wire-based tasers which are more or less gun shaped as well.
As to the safety issue, most police departments in the US are currently issued weapons such as the Sig Saur P226, which doesn't actually have a manual safety. They are known as DA/SA for Double Action/Single Action, meaning that the weapon is carried with a round in the chamber and the first trigger pull requires over twice the force (in terms of pounds of pressure) as subsequent pulls. The first trigger pull cocks the weapon, bringing the 'hammer' back then releasing it to where the firing pin can strike the primer on the cartridge. The round is then ejected and the rammer brought back automatically so that the next pull can be shorter, and generally more accurate as a result.
Although, to anyone who understands that, it should seem even less plausible that the officer wouldn't have noticed a significantly more difficult trigger pull than what I believe the taser itself has. The weight of the weapon should also have been a tip-off.
However, back on topic, this "student activist" is still a jackass who has performed an unreasonable act and made reasonable people who might agree with his motives susceptible for being painted with the same brush. Ann Coulter may be a stone-cold bitch, but that's not excuse for being a dumb ass.
Re:As a rabid lefty (Score:2, Informative)
Nothing was taken or lost.
Sure it was. Time and money were taken from the targeted sites and their hosting/bandwidth providers. Downtime does not have a non-zero cost in the commercial setting.