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Former Student Gets 30 Months For Political DDoS Attacks
wiredmikey writes "A former University of Akron student was sentenced Friday to 30 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release for conducting denial of service attacks on the sites of several prominent conservative figures as well as infecting several systems with botnet software. Mitchell L. Frost, age 23, of Bellevue, Ohio admitted that between August 2006 and March 2007, he initiated denial of service attacks on web servers hosting the sites of political commentators, including Bill O'Reilly, Rudy Giuliani, Ann Coulter, and others."
That's seriously warped. Yes, what he did was wrong, but it's not like he permanently shut down the Internet.
30 months? Two and a half years? Damn, he should have just raped someone instead, he probably would have gotten less time and had a lot more fun in the process. I swear, I'm going to start voting against any politician that runs on being "tough on crime." It seems plenty tough enough as it is.
Two and a half years of someone's life, that's the price we demand now for some minor inconvenience? Damn, if I were his lawyer, I'd be tempted to appeal that for violation of the Eighth Amendment.
Meanwhile, Johannes Mehserle, a former BART police officer, shoots and kills an unarmed, restrained man while in custody in view of numerous eyewitnesses, and gets two years in prison minus time already served. Even if we take the defense's word on the matter and accept that it was completely accidental, does it really make sense to punish one person so much more severely for a crime that did not result in anyone's death?
Yes, I am well aware that in the US, those in positions of power--whether through political or financial means--are treated with leniency, and the unwashed masses suffer.
Good. Don't justify their fears by acting like a thug.
That's two and a half years. Yes, he deserves to be punished, but it strikes me that he's not the one acting like a thug here, and I don't give a damn whether he's a rabid lefty, righty, or indy. If I heard that someone had gotten two and half years for taking down Reid'a, Pelosi's, and Michael Moore's sites, I still boggle in disbelief that someone got two and a half years.
Seriously. Damn!
He allegedly "admitted" to what looks like ten counts or more, but since his special assessement was $200, he was only convicted of a single felony count. So, then, why ever would he have admitted anything else? That would be allocution, relevant conduct and further admitted behavior. When I plead out in February 2007, I admitted guilt on one count and all others were dismissed. I denied them (they were indeed false) and no one admits other behavior and gets done for one count.
According to the sentencing table, assuming this is his first offense, his offense was Level 22. He got a standard three-point reduction for admission of guilt and the judge gave him the low end of Level 19. He will do 87.5% of it, (no parole in feds) a little more than 26 months. He'll go to halfway house in 23.
But he will not go to a Camp. His relevant conduct will affect his custody, and he will probably go to a Low (basically a Medium with cubicles instead of cells), perhaps even FCI Elkton in Ohio where I was. Not fun.
My suspicion is whether he really admitted all those other counts, or this is journalistic excess.
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
As another lefty, I agree in principle - some people are really assholes (Coulter would qualify for sure), but that doesn't mean that they do not have the right to demonstrate that to the world through unimpeded speech. Those who do not enjoy it have the freedom to not listen.
That said, I wonder about the length of sentence. 30 months sounds way too much to me for this kind of crime. In fact, any prison term sounds harsh - unless I'm missing something about what he did, it looks like the kind of thing that is best punished by a hefty fine and some community service.
Yeah. I saw guys in the feds who were doing 20 years because someone else committed a crime and they knew about it. I know a limo driver now at Elkton who picked up a fare at JFK, the DEA pulled them over and found the fare's bags stuffed with cocaine and meth. The driver knew nothing about it, denied all knowledge, and went to trial with a public defender. He got 37 years and lost his appeal, and does not have the money for collateral attack. Did you know that after one appeal, you must now use civil remedies, like 28USC 2241 and 2255, and you are NOT entitled to counsel for them?
I did five years for what most would call, at best, a silly prank that hurt no one and caused neither property or financial loss.
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
I'm curious as to what sort of sentence you would get for cutting off someone's power or whatever comm line they use (be it coaxial, fiber, telephone, etc.). If I cut your server's link to the web, would I get off easier than attempting to saturate that link?
SSC
Good. Don't justify their fears by acting like a thug.
Indeed. Usually folks like him try to accomplish the same thing by calling it "hate speech" or the old standby "racism" and seeking to have it censored. Remember how many people have been called "racist" for disagreeing with Obama's politics? Regarding censorship, it's pretty hard to get the government to do that in the USA, so instead they put pressure on the sponsors of a site or of a broadcast to try and make that happen. That's still underhanded as hell but perhaps not quite thuggish.
Of course if folks like him want to really show how non-thug they are, they could always explain why their viewpoint is superior using old antiquated things like facts and reasoning. That's something thugs and criminals are not known for doing.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
If it were a NON-POLITICAL DOS/bot attack, would anyone on Slashdot give a rat's ass if he went down for MORE than thirty months?
Ignore the political aspect, and he's just a vandal.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Are you serious? Free speech allows him to write his own website, it doesn't allow him to break theirs. Whether or not actual damages were inflicted is a different issue, much like "Attempted Murder" is just as much a crime as "Murder". The difference is in the punishment.
It pains me to see people honestly think that limiting other peoples speech is protected as free speech.
The above is not a subtle point at all. "sit ins" are by and large not legal at all. Think Abortion center protests. You can protest them, but you can't be a public disturbance, you can't be on their property, and you can't block people from access to the clinic. This is just what he did, he (attempted a) block of the websites, because he didn't agree with them. Instead of using his right to free speech to debate them, he decided to put his political feelings above others rights (free speech, right to assemble(people reading the sites), etc...)
Does the punishment fit the crime? maybe, maybe not, but this wasn't a protest, this wasn't a comment on some forum, This was a premeditated multivector attack on both the rights and the property of others. Just because he failed at it, or did it with a computer doesn't make it less wrong or illegal.
Ignore the political aspect, and he's just a vandal.
I concur. Like a spammer, he should suffer a penalty proportional to the crime. So, how many computers did he use in the DDOS attack, and what's the statutory penalty for fraudulent/unauthorized use of a computer?
Add them up, and he should probably do a couple of centuries of jail time.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Two wrongs don't make a right. Any right-winger using a DDOS attack on liberal sites should do time, too.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Where's the line between a DDoS against a political site and "protected free speech"?
I'd say the line is the use of other people's property without their consent. This is the same issue as spamming. His right to express himself doesn't include a right to use anyone else's property to do so.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
People fear hackers. The point isn't to compensate Reid, or Pelosi, or Ann Coulter, it's to stop people from doing this kind of thing. Based on your reaction, if every hacker reacted the way you are, then it's working. Certainly I would not be willing to do a DDOS of some site. No reasonable person would risk that kind of sentence for what is essentially a prank.
Let's be honest here, this wasn't some guy who for lulz ran an exploit he found on a website. The guy went to the effort to build up a botnet and use it. He was working on this maliciousness for a long time. Two and a half years doesn't really sound that long, to me.
Kevin Mitnick got five, and his crimes weren't malicious.
Qxe4
If it were a NON-POLITICAL DOS/bot attack, would anyone on Slashdot give a rat's ass if he went down for MORE than thirty months?
Yeah, since manslaughter doesn't get you more than two years these days.* And a hit and run might not even be something a DA wants to pursue vigorously. **
But you wanna see the system freak out? Show the people with money and clout that the system has holes, that there are people who can do things with technology that they don't understand.
OK, it's really not just a tech thing. Both our statutory punishments and our sentencing is messed up in this country. Unfortunately, it's in no small part because we're quite simply very very stupid about the issue politically: we like to vote for people who are "tough on crime," so I don't expect a lot of change.
* May not apply if you're not a police officer.
** May not apply if you're not wealthy.
Tweet, tweet.
127 plus 80 who were given suspended sentences! I'm sure you don't need a citation because electoral fraud is so common place and all criminals are asked their political alligiences meaning that these stats are so easy to come across! How many left wingers have gone to jail for voter caging? Or voter intimidation? Talk about a double standard!
So let me make this clear, you're not only outraged at this because you share the perpetrator's political views? You would be equally as outraged if the person jailed was a die hard republican? You would never exhibit such double standards as you would accuse other people of right?
It pains ME to see an ideologue debase a basic free speech issue iinto another stupid liberal/conservative diatribe..
Those MORONS think the whole world revolves around their artificial bullshit dichotomy.
Reduce the world to liberal/conservative and you reduce choices. Reduce choices and you reduce freedom.
It is ALL about the power of Big Capital. It frames the dialog, and the lemmings folllow.
Well, Big Capital is one half of it. The other half of it is a public school system that takes great pains to never teach the basic logic, rhetoric, and critical thinking necessary to see that for yourself. Without that, many people would divest from the various sources of Big Capital and it wouldn't be Big Capital anymore.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Civil disobedience is one thing, vandalism another. No-one should have the right to ddos another.
Lengthy prison sentences are a product of, not only politicians and the War on Crime, but corporate ownership of jails. There is a financial and electoral incentive for putting people in jail. The growth of the prison population has grown dramatically in the last 50 years as a result of the commercialization of the penal system.
See also Republicans, and Teabaggers responses to their own being raging assholes.
Ok Nancy, we get it. You're upset you lost the house. Now quit calling people teabaggers and assholes.
There's no place like
Yes, actually it is worth a 30 month stay in jail. RTFA. He inflicted tens of thousands of dollars worth of economic losses on the entities that he attacked. When you do that you go to jail. It's simple really.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
No. This punk is nothing more than a digital brownshirt, trying to silence those who he disagrees with.
Sorry, but silencing others is NOT protected as free speech.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Unless its a filibuster DDOS attack - those are ok.
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