The British teenager George Duke-Cohan (19) has been sentenced to three years in prison due to false bomb threats and carrying out DDoS attacks.A
Cohan was arrested in August by the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA), the teenager, aka “7R1D3N7,” “DoubleParallax” and “optcz1,” was arrested on August 31 and pleaded guilty to three counts of making hoax bomb threats.
According to the investigator, the young man is the leader of the Apophis Squad, which is the hacking group that sent bomb threats to thousands of schools in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The group is also known for launching massive DDoS attacks against encrypted email provider ProtonMail, the popular investigator Brian Krebs, the DEF CON hacking conference, and government agencies worldwide.
The team was offering a DDoS-for-hire service that has many similarities with the booter implemented by the popular Lizard Squad hacking crew.
He has admitted making bomb threats to thousands of schools and a United Airlines flight traveling from the UK to San Francisco in August. in many cases resulting in evacuations.
The NCA says the teenager, known online as “7R1D3N7,” “DoubleParallax” and “optcz1,” has also admitted making a prank call claiming that a United Airlines flight traveling from the U.K. to San Francisco had been hijacked by gunmen, including one carrying a bomb.
Cohan has now been sentenced to one year in prison for the bomb hoaxes targeting schools, and two years for the airport attack.
Unfortunately for the British youngster, he will face additional charges in the United States, even if the indictment has yet to be announced.
Before sentencing, the judge noted that Duke-Cohan’s early guilty pleas, his age, no prior criminal record and, to a limited extent, his “functioning deficiencies which have contributed to a diagnosis of autism,” were taken into consideration. However, these mitigating factors only helped his case to a certain degree.
“You knew exactly what you were doing and why you were doing it, and you knew full well the havoc that would follow.” said Judge Richard Foster
“You were playing a cat-and-mouse game with the authorities. You were playing a game for your own perverted sense of fun in full knowledge of the consequences.”
“You knew exactly what you were doing and why you were doing it, and you knew full well the havoc that would follow,” Judge Richard Foster said, quoted by the Daily Mail. “What you did was far removed from anything that could be described as naivety or a cry for help from a sick person.”
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(Security Affairs – cybercrime, DDoS)
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