According to a Justice Department (DoJ) press release, Austin Thompson, a.k.a. "DerpTroll," took downward servers of several major gaming platforms including Electronic Arts' Origin service, the Sony PlayStation network, too Valve Software's Steam, betwixt Dec 2013 too Jan 2014, past times flooding them alongside plenty cyberspace traffic.
Thompson too then typically used the Twitter trouble concern human relationship the @DerpTrolling handgrip to denote his attacks, afterward posting screenshots or other photos of the server beingness unavailable after launching DDoS attacks.
The attacks commonly took downward game servers too related computers of the victim companies for at to the lowest degree a few hours at a time, causing at to the lowest degree $95,000 inwards damages to the gaming companies to a greater extent than or less the world.
"Denial-of-service attacks toll businesses millions of dollars annually," said States Attorney Adam Braverman spell announcing the plea. "We are committed to finding too prosecuting those who disrupt businesses, oft for zip to a greater extent than than ego."
Thompson pleaded guilty inwards federal courtroom inwards San Diego on Th too was charged alongside causing damages to a protected computer, which carries a maximum penalization of 10 years prison, a fine of $250,000, every bit good every bit iii years supervised release.
Active since 2011, the DerpTrolling hacking grouping is believed to last operated past times Thompson, who write malware used to launch the DDoS attacks against online services to a greater extent than or less the world.
However, the hacking grouping made headlines inwards belatedly 2013 too early on 2014 after disrupting online gaming servers owned past times Sony, Riot Games, Microsoft, Nintendo, Valve, too Electronic Arts.
Thompson's sentencing is scheduled for March 1, 2019, earlier States District Judge Jeffrey Miller.
It wasn't only DerpTrolling that created chaos inwards 2014. The infamous Lizard Squad hacking grouping also made headlines inwards 2014 past times launching DDoS attacks against Microsoft Xbox Live too Sony PlayStation Network too knocking them offline during the Christmas holidays.
Several teenagers concluding twelvemonth from to a greater extent than or less the basis were charged alongside participating inwards the Lizard Squad 2014 DDoS attacks.
