Hacker Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison for Code Responsible for Hacks Against Major Gaming Companies
Four years ago, teenage hacker Adam Mudd, created code called Titanium Stresser, and set up a hacking network wreaking chaos worldwide. He was responsible for hacks against some major gaming companies, including Microsoft and Sony and today, Adam Mudd was sentenced to 2 years in jail for his role in these detrimental hacks!
As reported by The Guardian, Mudd created the despicable code when he was just 16 years old and then set up a business selling it to fellow hackers, making a profit of £386,000! He played a hand in 1.7 million hacks worldwide, and was also found guilty of carrying out 594 distributed denial of service attacks against 181 IP addresses from December 2013 to March 2015. It’s reported that he also breached the security of his school, West Herts College, causing the system to crash. The school spent roughly £2000 to investigate the problem.
Adam Mudd might be known in the gaming community as the one responsible for a hack against RuneScape where the company suffered 25,000 cyber attacks, which cost them £6m to strengthen the security against DDoS attacks. Along with this substantial cost, it was estimated that RuneScape lost £184,000 in revenue as a result as well.
The prosecutor, Jonathan Polnay, alleged that Mudd’s program had been used by 112,000 people to hack approximately 666,000 IP address, of which 53,000 were in the United Kingdom. Both the prosecution and defense agreed that Mudd, who lived with his parents at the time of his arrest, wasn’t motivated by money. They stated instead that he sought the status among his peers online.
Mudd’s defense attorney Ben Cooper stated that he was having a hard time emotionally and was “Someone seeking friendship and status within the gaming community.” He further mentioned that as a result of being bullied in school, Mudd had become “lost in an alternate reality.” Polnay argued that Mudd was more dangerous as he wasn’t motivated by money and he wasn’t trying to get out of a financially unattainable lifestyle.
According to The Guardian, Mudd, now 20 years old, “showed no emotion as he was sent to a young offender institution.” In the end, Judge Michael Topolski QC sentenced Mudd to 2 years in prison, reasoning that he “knew full well and understood completely this was not a game for fun” and that his dealings were “a serious money-making business.” As such, the Judge stated that Mudd’s sentence must have a “real element of deterrent” to warn other hackers of the consequences. Judge Topolski concluded that he had a duty to the public, who are “worried about this, threatened by this, damaged by this all the time.”
What do you guys think? Does the punishment fit the crime? Let us know in the comments below.