14 DAY TRIAL // A sixteen-year-old UK teenager from Plymouth pleaded guilty to DDoS attacks all over the world and was later found guilty of issuing bomb threats after denying any involvement.
Police arrested the teenager last fall, in November, at his home in Plympton, Plymouth, from where they also seized his laptop.
Authorities initially charged the teen with launching DDoS attacks on several websites belonging to companies from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. They also accused him of issuing two bomb threats against North American airlines.
DDoS attacks have ties to Anonymous operations
During police questioning, the teenager initially pleaded guilty to all charges but later changed his guilty plea for the bomb threats, saying that he admitted to those charges at his lawyer's behest in order to receive a lighter sentence.
At the end of June, the teenager officially pleaded guilty to ten DDoS attacks on the websites of the Devon and Cornwall Police, SeaWorld Orlando, and an unnamed Japanese town, known to organize an annual dolphin hunt.
In 2015, when the youth carried out his DDoS attacks, both SeaWorld and the Japanese town (supposedly Taiji) were regular targets of DDoS campaigns launched by the Anonymous hacker collective part of #OpKillingBay.
The teenager justified his DDoS attacks to the judge as an attempt to be considered cool and get more Twitter followers.
Teen found guilty of bomb threats after denying any involvement
Two days ago, on July 6, the judge also found the teenager guilty of making two bomb threats via Twitter against American Airlines and Delta Airlines.
One of his threats posted on February 13, 2015, reads, "One of those lovely Boeing airplanes has a nice tick tick tick. Hurry gentleman the clock is ticking."
The teenager fought these accusations by saying that he was tricked by a friend via Skype to install an RAT (Remote Access Trojan) on his computer. This malware has allowed his friend to take control of his PC and post the threats on his behalf, the teenager said in court.
District judge, Diane Baker, told the teen that she didn't believe his explanation because someone with the skills to hide his online presence in order to carry out DDoS attacks wouldn't fall for such a trick. The teenager will receive his sentence on July 20, 2016.