Slashdot Mirror
Mafiaboy Gets His Wrist Slapped
An anonymous reader writes: "Mafiaboy, the Canadian 'hacker' that did the DOS on Ebay, Amazon, Excite, CNN, etc. has gotten 8 months in a youth detention centre and 1 year probation. Prosecuters think this will be a message to 'hackers' that do this kind of thing. I say the message should be to the scriptkiddies who obviously don't know how to cover their tracks, to at least learn to do so before they download malicious software." The other message is that even if you get caught, your sentence will be ridiculously easy.
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
"So what you are in for?"
"Denial of Service on EBay. You?"
"I put my sister in the hospital because she was hogging the computer."
"Eeep."
Beware typoes.
I know, they dont even bring in any profits in the first place.In fact, by being offline for half a day, I think Mafiaboy saved them millions if anything. The combined quarterly revenues of those companys doesnt even equal that figure.
Jeff Knox
..I heard that he started crying like a baby when the judge pronounced his sentence. What a fucking pansy...
h3110 l4mUrz,
1 4m a 15 yr 0ld h4X0r/cr4ckX0r, 4nd i th3nk th4t t3h s3nt1nce r1lly SUXX0RZ!!! i 4m more s/\/\a4tur then 4ll j00 0lde phart PUNKX0r S1S-4DMINZ c0mbinde!#% JOO PH33R MY 5K33LZ, i w1ll p1ngn00k joo and fr4ggX0r jur ARSE in c0uNtArStRiEk!!! i am 1337.. 4LL J00R B4S3 R B3L0NGZ 2 US!!!!!
---===[[[{{{N33T-0 31337-0}}}]]]===--- [xRc]
PHR33 MAPHIAB0Y!!!!!
/s
/save
/exit
/qut
/quit
h0w do i sa3v? th3si sint pien!!$ GRR!! greppin tarball
Easy? Easy?
He got fined CDN$250!!!! That's, what, 1/2 the Gross National Product of Canada?
Lets look at the figures of damage supposedly caused by Mafiaboy and see if he deserves a rewards, not a prison sentance. The estimated figure of damage was 1.3Billion combined from eBay, Yahoo, and Amazon. Lets first look at revenue and losses of these companies. They dont make any profit, which is what will be my point. This information has been culled from finance.yahoo.com (Interesting how yhoo's profile on finance.yahoo.com is more flavorly and flattering then any other stocks).
Yahoo (per http://biz.yahoo.com/p/y/yhoo.html )
"For the six months ended 6/30/01, revenues decreased 28% to $362.4 million.
"Net loss totaled $60 million vs. an income of $120.9 million."
Ok. So in the first six months of this year they only had revenue of 362.4 million, and had a Net Loss of 60 million. Devide 60 million by (365/2/2, or 91.25, a figure for a half a day of revenue) and you get $657,534 dollars of Losses they did not have because their site was down. So in this case Yahoo loss 3.97 million in revenues, which would of resulted in $657,534 of losses. So Mafiaboy saved Yahoo $657,534 in all reality.
eBay (per http://biz.yahoo.com/p/e/ebay.html )
"For the six months ended 6/30/01, revenues rose 82% to $335 million."
"Net income totaled $45.7 million, up from $9.2 million."
Ok. So eBay is making a profit. So revenue losses in ebays case is very similar to yahoo at $3.67 million. And actually profit losses are $500,822. So their is real loss associated with his attack. $500,822 dollars in eBay's case (if at all, because in reality, the auctions still went on, and eBay still collected all their fees).
Amazon.com (per http://biz.yahoo.com/p/a/amzn.html )
"For the the six months ended 6/30/01, revenues increased 19% to $1.37 billion"
"Net loss before acct. change fell 37% to $392 million."
Amazon has a significantly higher revenue then eBay and Yahoo as we see. So revenue loss for that half day would be 15million. Net loss Amazon.com was saved from that 15 million, $4.3million.
Summary
Adding up the total half day losses of revenue for all the companies equals $22.64 million in loss revenue. Of that $4.96 million would of been losses, and only $500,822 thousand would be profit. So the net amount of money it could be considered that Mafiaboy saved these three companies is 4.45million dollars. If you add up the half year revenues of these companies it was only around 2 billion. And thats for HALF A YEAR. Amazon.com accounting for most of that. No way Mafiaboy caused 1.3 billion in damage, not matter how you look at it. I know their is more then revenue, such as employees over time and whatnot. But still looking at the figures 23 million of damage at best (because no one can say these companies actually ended up loosing sales, and in eBays case, it probably did not have much of a effect if any), or looking at it from another viewpoint, you could say Mafiaboy saved these companies over 4 million dollars.
PS. Dont take this as an approval of Mafiaboys actions. What he did was wrong, no matter what way you look at it.
Jeff Knox
Well, perhaps while attending school there, he will learn to spell correctly and to write grammatical sentences. These skills will undoubtedly be beneficial to him when he enters the job market. You can probably testify to that.
mp
"The secret to strong security: less reliance on secrets." -- Whitfield Diffie
Originally he was sentenced to correct Taco's grammar and spelling for a year, but it was deemed cruel & unusual punishment...
That's not enough of a translation yet. Here is the final version:
Greetings to those for whom I hold some degree of low regard.
I am a young computing/networking enthusiast who is disappointed with the punishment assigned to a fellow enthusiast. I have come into knowledge that is not universal; and because I have few other avenues through which I can gather respect, I intend to use this knowledge to randomly punish others. To accomplish this, I intend to display my knowledge through both gaming and non-gaming-oriented activities. I am also assigning myself a title to indicate my status. My long-term goals include assuming ownership of all facilities where personnel and equipment are centrally gathered.
I shall now attempt to determine the correct usage of the program with which I am composing this message.