Teenage hacker to serve 11 months in detention facility

November 18, 2008 07:20 PM Email| Comments (6)| Text size – +

By Milton Valencia, Globe Staff

A teenage computer hacker from Worcester pleaded guilty today in federal court to charges of computer intrusion, interstate threats, and wire fraud from 2005 to this year.

Prosecutors said the 17-year-old, whose online alias was "Dshocker," used stolen credit card numbers to buy items online; hacked into corporate computer systems and directed cyberattacks on other systems; and placed hoax 911 calls to police departments throughout the country intended to provoked armed police responses, a practice known as "swatting."

The teenager, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile under federal law, is to be sentenced at a later date, but has already reached a plea agreement that calls for an 11-month prison sentence in a juvenile detention facility. As an adult, he could have faced 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

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6 comments so far...

Have fun in the slammer prag

Posted by Bart November 19, 08 12:13 AM

17 year old white kid gets 11 months , Guaranteed if he was a minority he would have been tried as an adult and would have got 3=5 on good behavior.....its a damn shame

Posted by sacrafyc November 19, 08 08:21 AM

This young man is obviously talented in the IT department. Still rather than playing with fire he should have been working as a intern for some mega billion $ company instead of showing everyone his talent though for all the wrong reasons.

Posted by Tomisha LeClair November 19, 08 08:40 AM

a good man indeed

Posted by mike November 19, 08 09:27 AM

sacrafyc: where in this article does it say he was white?

Posted by Kelly November 19, 08 10:34 AM

Yeah I don't think the race card applies here, I think the consideration is that it was a non-violent crime.

Posted by Rob November 19, 08 11:19 AM