

16 year old arrested for DDOS attack on MasterCard in The Hague, The Netherlands - ebaysucks
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article2648033.ece/16-jarige_opgepakt_voor_cyberaanval_op_MasterCard&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhj4avUDZchGTFq4083zux8gLS_o4w
The original version in Dutch: http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article2648033.ece/16-jarige_opgepakt_voor_cyberaanval_op_MasterCard
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jacquesm
dutchie here, a slightly more readable version:

"Rotterdam, December 9th. The police has arrested in the night of Wednesday to
Thursday a 16 year old boy who apparently was involved in the cyber attacks by
WikiLeaks sympathizers on amongst others Mastercard and PayPal. This has been
announced by the office of the public prosecutor.

WikiLeaks sympathisers have started these attacks after the arrest of
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Great Brittain. With these so-called DDoS
attacks hackers want to take revenge on companies that no longer process funds
transfers to WikiLeaks. The High Tech Crime Team of the dutch national police
had started an investigation after it became clear that these attacks
originate in the Netherlands, according to the office of the public
prosecutor.

Besides Mastercard and PayPal the websites of VISA, the Swedish public
prosecutor, the swiss Post Bank have been subjected to attacks as well. The
actions of the WikiLeaks sympathisers are carried out under the code name
'PayBack'.

The young suspect from The Hague has been interrogated on Thursday and has
confessed that he committed attacks on MasterCard and VISA. Police have
confiscated computers and data carriers. On Friday he will have to appear in
front of a judge in Rotterdam. According to the justice department the boy is
part of a group of hackers.

The investigation in to this group is still running, according to the public
prosecutor. It is not clear whether other suspects are also in the Netherlands
or abroad. The justice department does not rule out more arrests.

A spokesperson for the public prosecutors office has announced that the
justice department will act against those that are actually performing these
attacks. People that just make their computer available are committing a
felony but are not taken in to account in the current investigation."

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coderdude
Good. This may not be a popular opinion, but I've been waiting for these kids
to get punished. Just because they are script kiddies doesn't mean they aren't
fully aware of their actions and the impact those actions can have.

I see them all over mainstream sites posting comments "as" Anonymous and I
can't help but wonder how ignorant or just plain stupid these people are. They
can and will find out who uses these tools and you can bet Visa and Mastercard
will use their enormous resources to make sure there is reparation or payback.

~~~
michaelchisari
It's a form of civil disobedience, and hopefully people can organize legal and
material support for those arrested.

~~~
amalcon
Willingness to accept the punishment that the law dictates is what separates
civil disobedience from... well, from regular old disobedience, I guess.

~~~
steveklabnik
Willingness to accept punishment and taking steps to mitigate that punishment
are two different things.

~~~
amalcon
Indeed; it's important that those steps be honest and in good faith, however.
(Unless the court system happens to be what they're protesting against, of
course.)

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BoppreH
One thing they always forget to address: was this guy a botnet owner using his
zombie computer swarm or did he just download the LOIC and filled the fields
as the guide instructed?

It might be a crime anyway, but calling him a "hacker" instead of saying that
he downloaded a program and clicked a button make people think in very
different ways.

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DjDarkman
If Copyright trolls do it it's no problem, if a 16 year old does it it's a
crime... can it get uglier than this?

~~~
__david__
Maybe it's the fact that it was a company vs a bunch of individuals... Perhaps
Anonymous should incorporate.

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ebaysucks
FYI original article in Dutch:
[http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article2648033.ece/16-jarige_op...](http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article2648033.ece/16-jarige_opgepakt_voor_cyberaanval_op_MasterCard)

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patrickgzill
Probability of this kid being the ringleader as opposed to just a script
kiddie who get caught?

~~~
ebaysucks
According to the article, the police tries to focus on the active organizers.
Not sure how they distinguish passive and active help though.

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jeroen
Den Haag (dutch) or The Hague (english)

~~~
ebaysucks
My apologies. Title is corrected. Thanks for pointing out.

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bradleyland
The RIAA tried this tactic. It didn't stop anyone from pirating music.

~~~
citricsquid
They're very different. This is _properly_ illegal.

~~~
user24
This is true, but why would that impact the effectiveness of the tactic?

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limey
Now another 19 year old arrested <http://bit.ly/grstDw>

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rhizome
I'm calling shenanigans, and at any rate if it's true it's certainly a corner
case. an interrogation and confession? just like that? something hinky is
going on with this story.

~~~
jacquesm
Yes, sure. Because if you haul 16 year olds in to a real life sized police
station and start asking pointed questions after doing what they probably
figured was a nice prank they're going to clam up and ask for their lawyer,
instead of becoming blubbering children.

Please, you can bet that (a) it's true, (b) that it's not a corner case (c)
that he really confessed and (d) that there is nothing hinky at all.

Grown ups tend to fall apart after an hour or two in a cell if they've never
been there before, imagine the effect on a 16 year old kid.

~~~
sliverstorm
This will (hopefully) remain one of those things I always wonder about. Just
how long would I last?

~~~
jacquesm
I've been in jail for several hours on a charge of tax evasion (long story
short: I drove a car with foreign plates in to the Netherlands which was not
yet fit for road approval, it was insured and otherwise ok), it did not make
me suicidal (though they did take my shoelaces out of my shoes) but I was
ready to do murder by the time I got out.

It had the exact opposite effect on me than what it does on most people
apparently, I was ready to be reasonable at the time of being arrested but by
the time they let me out of the holding cell they had lost each and every bit
of credibility and respect with me that they ever had.

It was clearly a load of bull, they knew, I knew it, so I wanted to file
charges and before you could say 'wow' I was escorted back out on to the
street with a 'don't do that again' warning.

They would not even let me back in to file those charges.

Now, what a longer time in a prison cell would do to me I could not tell you
but anger at this injustice is the only thing that still stands out after all
these years (2 decades).

~~~
lefstathiou
This reminds me of the last time i was in Athens. I took a picture of the US
embassy and spent 5 hours in a cell. The fact that I am a Greek American with
American citizenship meant nothing. The government has a way of making
reasonable people unreasonable...

~~~
ebaysucks
When I was in New York, the police stopped me from taking a picture of the
Federal Reserve Building. They than gave me an info brochure with on the front
a picture from the same angle. Only in America my friend.

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omouse
So the Netherlands are going to arrest Mastercard for violating the will of
its customers right?

