Blind Teenager Gets 11 Years in Prison For Hacking
In the U.S. the 19-year-old Matthew Weigman was sentenced to 11 years in prison after being found guilty on telephone hacking and a company’s investigator harassment charges. His accomplice Sean Benton, 18, got a 135-month prison sentence. Another member of the crew Guadalupe Martinez was also sentenced to imprisonment for 30 months.
The hackers used various methods to break through the phone network’s security system. In order to get the necessary information they posed as customers or staff members of the telephone company. The group also exchanged valuable information with fellow hackers. Then they would use specific war-dialing software to hack the system.
The main aim of the crew was to harass phone network customers though making phony calls to 911. The hackers’ spoofing technology allowed them to make more than 60 of the so-called swatting calls in the entire country. This clever technology made the distress calls look as if they were coming from random homes. Thus, the hackers would pose as victims of crimes and in most cases the police would literally rush into the house of ordinary citizens pointing their guns at the clueless people. On one occasion, Martinez called 911 pretending to be holding an entire family hostage claiming he had killed a number of them with an AK47.
The hackers’ attacks were targeted at “employers, landlords, families and friends of multiple party line participants” the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Weigman and his accomplices seem to have performed the crimes for purely sadistic reasons expecting to see the lives of their victims being ruined. The 19-year-old started his criminal venture at the even younger age of 14.
This long sentence should come as a warning for hackers to realize the brutality of their crimes. Not only the harassed people went through fear and stress, the state also spent thousands of dollars on unnecessary police operations. In fact, only the professionalism of the police force prevented the occurrence of shootings or grave injuries.
No related posts.
| |
If you are gonna hack something make sure it has some meaning. What a waste