Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Florida Man Arrested For Hacking Linux Kernel Organization In 2011 (softpedia.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the five-years-later dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The FBI seems to have solved the mysterious case of the 2011 kernel.org hack, when an unknown attacker breached kernel.org servers and attempted to install a rootkit in the kernel code. As years went by, the Linux Kernel Organization kept avoiding releasing an incident response surrounding the event, irking their community accustomed to more open communications from their leaders. The mystery seems to have been solved when yesterday a Florida man was arrested and charged with "hacking the Linux Kernel Organization" and installing a "rootkit and trojan software," just like in the 2011 kernel.org server breach. Donald Ryan Austin is his name. He was arrested during a routine traffic stop last Sunday, on August 28, 2016, and faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and any other restitution.

13 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. 10 years?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How come NOBODY at Sony is being held CRIMINALLY responsible for THEIR rootkit that infected MILLIONS of people????

    1. Re:10 years?? by sims+2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because they have lobbyists.

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    2. Re:10 years?? by Hylandr · · Score: 1

      This.

      If it can be taxed it's legal.

      --
      ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
    3. Re:10 years?? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      It was on the label

  2. FLORIDA MAN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    oh shit, it's that god-damned florida man again... didn't they kill him already?

    1. Re:FLORIDA MAN by Desler · · Score: 1

      It least it wasn't the Humanzee.

    2. Re:FLORIDA MAN by campuscodi · · Score: 1

      Florida man returns

    3. Re:FLORIDA MAN by marsu_k · · Score: 1

      Nope, still going strong

  3. Press release from DOJ by gnunick · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here is the link: https://www.justice.gov/usao-n...

    --
    I have no special gift, I am only passionately curious. --Albert Einstein
  4. The most badass criminal... by XSportSeeker · · Score: 1

    FLORIDA MAN. Most badass criminal with the longest criminal file of all times. Also, the most bizarre one.

  5. Re:So what part was criminal? by sjames · · Score: 1

    RTFA

  6. Listening to Linus Thorvalds for 10 minutes by SuneSpeg · · Score: 1

    seems like a reasonable punishment.

  7. Routine Traffic Stop? by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    Somebody is a god damned lier.