12-yr-old boy admits to hacking police and government sites for Anonymous

[Renegade]

This is hilarious on many levels, but still kind of sad:

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/10/26/12-year-old-canadian-boy-admits-to-hacking-police-and-government-sites-for-anonymous/

12-year-old Canadian boy admits to hacking police and government sites for Anonymous

A 12-year-old Canadian boy has pleaded guilty to hacking government and police websites during the 2012 student uprising in Quebec under affiliation with the Anonymous brand of hacktivists.

According to the Toronto Sun, the fifth grader, who lives in the Montreal suburb of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, appeared in youth court on Thursday, accompanied by his father.

The boy pleaded guilty to three charges related to hacking websites that included those of Montreal police, the Quebec Institute of Public Health, the Chilean government and some non-public sites.

The attacks took some of the sites offline for up to two days, at what police estimated as a cost of $60,000 in damages. A more detailed report will be handed over next month when the boy is sentenced, according to the Toronto Sun.

More at the link.

[40hz]

Woulda looked better from a political perspective if he hadn't traded some of the data he obtained for free video games. Assuming that part of the report is true.

I take any "facts" included as part of a guilty plea with a grain of salt these days. Especially since there have been documented cases where people have plead guilty to something only to discover their original plea had been mysteriously 'revised' or 'expanded' after the fact. Seems what they admitted to picked up some additional paragraphs and details between them signing the paper and it being entered into the official court records.

Sad.

[Stoic Joker]

The only thing that's sad there is that they have the unmitigated gall to prosecute anyone after getting spanked by a 12 year old.

Pulled from the comments there:

Um, if a 12 year old can hack into their system then why is the 12 year old getting punished?

Either A) The kid needs to be offered a job or a full scholarship...

or B) The security/IT team for the police/government sites need to be fired. He's 12.

Nailed IT!!

[40hz]

^Agree. But that would be a little too obvious for some people. (Pwned by a 12-year old? Good grief!)

[TaoPhoenix]

"Think of those adorable little twelve year olds who needs our nice invasive laws to keep him safe ... what's that colonel? He hacked us?? Well then destroy him, I mean give him hacker street cred for life!"

[SeraphimLabs]

The only thing that's sad there is that they have the unmitigated gall to prosecute anyone after getting spanked by a 12 year old.

Pulled from the comments there:

Um, if a 12 year old can hack into their system then why is the 12 year old getting punished?

Either A) The kid needs to be offered a job or a full scholarship...

or B) The security/IT team for the police/government sites need to be fired. He's 12.

Nailed IT!!

Canada's laws must be different, because last I checked you legally can't even prosecute a 12 year old in the US. At least not in this manner, at worst the kid would get a slap on the wrist and some community service time.

On the other hand, the IT management for the sites that got hacked into should have a long talk with this boy to find out just how he did it and fix their services so that it never happens again.

[40hz]

^In the US he might not have been "prosecuted" per se.

But juvenile laws vary widely by state. And in many cases, juvenile judges have broad discretionary leeway in dealing with so-called "delinquency" issues even in the absence of a criminal conviction. A kid could be removed from his home and sent to a youth detention facility in many places merely on the say-so of a judge.

And in some places, the US or state governments have laws in place to prosecute minors under adult laws for certain offenses.

I think he got far less of a slap living where he does than he might have gotten here for messing with a police agency.

[IainB]

That little smartass should be incarcerated in solitary confinement for the rest of his natural...or wait, even better, make him a US president.