A 12-year-old boy from Canada has appeared in court having been busted hacking several local and international government websites, handing over information to Anonymous in exchange for…video games. What? He’s 12.
According to the Toronto Sun, some of the sites he hacked include the Quebec Institute of Public Health, the website of the Chilean government and the Montreal Police. It’s estimated he did around $US60,000 worth of damage.
Part of a group arrested over the attacks, it’s claimed the boy used three different strategies, ranging from a standard DDoS to infiltrating servers to editing the information displayed as a site’s home page.
While his defence say that there were no political motivations behind his crimes, prosecutors allege that he not only played a pivotal role in the hacks, but taught others how to copy his actions.
Que. boy, 12, pleads guilty to hacking government websites [Toronto Sun, via Game Politics]
Comments
28 responses to “Kid Hacks Government Websites In Exchange For Video Games”
My guess is that he’s been raised on tablets and laptops and never learned empathy. Probably doesn’t even understand that what he was doing was actually bad.
What do drugs have to do with this?
Impair your cognitive development. Ignoring the joke, would ld be a good an explanation as any to why this little shit thought it would become a good idea.
Woah don’t call him a shit. Nobody knows the implications of the actions.
Doesn’t take a genius to figure out you don’t fuck with other people’s property. A 12 year old knows this.
You are right, it doesn’t take a genius, it takes a socially developed person whose understanding of society does not stem from whether or not they are a genius. So your comment is invalid.
I know you think you made a point, but you didn’t. Children as young as 3 know about property ownership. A 12 year old can have autism and still know fucking with someone else’s property is wrong. Your post is incoherent and invalid.
Incorrect. Property ownership is not something that extends well to the boundaries of the virtual world. Still today most people struggle with piracy, they are told its ‘wrong’ but their own morals suggest otherwise since they legitimize doing it. People don’t swing their finger at their child saying “You shouldn’t hack into the Quebec Institute of Health” because they are teaching kids the value of property ownership; they do it because the NSA will knock down your door at 3:00AM. And if you think every person knows the value of property ownership have you ever heard of kleptomaniacs, pre-colonial Aboriginals or monks?
Maybe. But maybe he’s actually really intelligent. A 12 year old boy outsmarted government officials responsible for the security of thee websites…
Believe me, that doesn’t take all that much effort in most cases, contrary to what most people would like to have you believe. If he managed to get into some defense stuff, I’d be impressed. This stuff is just childs play tho, especially the DDoS stuff.
I’m guessing the damage cost is mostly the fees payed to the contractors who had to come in during the night to bring the websites back up.
That and the expense involved in hiring someone to trace the attack, yeah
Government should hire him to stop other hackers……..Kind of like that french movie I watched, Nikita or something, only a little bit less assassinationing
Or maybe in this case… hacking is literal… with an axe… and bodies… and victims… :O
Nah. That sort of thing is reserved for people who actually do something impressive rather than just annoying. Instructions on how to do this are out there and easy enough to access if you know where to look.
It’s just conjecture, but it kind of sounds like he was given access to one of many hacking swiss army knives and did the dirty work for Anonymous members while they sat back and reaped the rewards. A lot of hacks these days really are (excuse the pun) child’s play.
Probably because the kid won’t get into very much trouble at least not as much as an adult
DDOS of a website is like flash mobbing a McDonalds. What could the kid really have done that was so bad? Delete some files or change some text in default.htm? At what point do we stop blaming the kids and start blaming the lazy Admins leaving the front door open?
Damn straight.
So is Anonymous now like the shadow broker? Trading information?
Eh, I’d say Anonymous is more like the Illuminati. You always hear about them but you don’t exactly know what they are.
Wrong. Anonymous is the fat 30 year old still living with his parents, trying to tell everyone his virginity is a lifestyle choice. They’re loud, obnoxious, self-righteous and useless.
Hrm. Intuition says yes, but I recently read an interview with one of the key figures arrested and jailed who was driving around in fancy cars and eating in expensive restaurants on the dime of idiot rich chicks he was banging. The loud, obnoxious, and self-righteous parts were bang on, though.
The exception to the rule I think.
Yesterday I couldn’t figure out how to get my printer to work with my laptop. I do an IT based course at uni. This 12 year old makes me feel bad about myself 🙁
I assume anob gave him exploits (?) I dont think a 12 can code that good to out smart people who study codeing. But i may be wrong……
I think you misunderstand what’s involved here. This isn’t as technical as it appears, he only edited a web server and a DDOS attack is pretty straight forward if you’ve managed to find an effective script, he wouldn’t have even had to write it himself.
Ah ok. Well when i was 12 i used a online shell booter to take out a Cs server, to me that was technicle yet now i look back i realize it was petty and simple. I doubt this kid will get anything more then a slap on the wrist.