14 DAY TRIAL // Martin Gottesfeld, 31, from Somerville, Massachusetts, was arrested by FBI agents after being rescued at sea, in the Gulf of Mexico, NBC News reports.
According to the FBI, Mr. Gottsfeld was under investigation after launching a series of cyber-attacks against Boston Children's Hospital in 2014, as part of the Anonymous hacker collective.
The hacker was trying to reach Cuba
A few weeks prior to his rescue, Mr. Gottsfeld and his wife left their Sommerville home without telling acquaintances. Family members and Mr. Gottsfeld boss informed police of their disappearance a few days later, but law enforcement did not manage to find any clues about their whereabouts.
The situation changed when a few days ago, FBI agents in the Bahamas informed their US colleagues that they've apprehended Mr. Gottsfeld after a Disney cruise ship had rescued him and his wife from a sailboat near the coast of Cuba.
The two had broadcasted a distress call asking for help. Cruise members told FBI agents that the two had a sizeable amount of luggage, along with three laptops.
Gottsfeld was behind the DDoS attacks on the Boston Children's Hospital
Before being arrested, Mr. Gottsfeld was under investigation for the cyber-attacks against the Boston hospital since October 2014. Investigators said they've tied him to an Anonymous YouTube video uploaded online, through which he called upon fellow hackers to launch attacks against the Boston hospital as part of #OpJustina.
The #OpJustina Anonymous campaign was launched in after Boston Children's Hospital staff tried to take custody of Justina Pelletier, thinking she was a victim of parental abuse.
A custody battle followed, which Justina's parents won, after proving that hospital staff had misdiagnosed their child, and that she was suffering from a mitochondrial disease, and not beaten, as initially thought.
The Anonymous DDoS attacks managed to bring the hospital's systems down for at least a week and caused damages of $300,000 (€270,000).
Below are videos describing the Anonymous #OpJustina campaign and a report made by the Boston Globe right after the attack.
