The FBI arrested a Penn student today for setting up a denial of service attack on an engineering department computer using botnets. Ryan Goldstein of Ambler has been charged with crimes related to misuse of computers. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security take a very dim view of people using the internet to hack into other computers, especially if they're government (i.e. County), and assume many of these offenders are doing so to hide terrorist intent.
In this case Goldstein was upset because a chat site banned him for offensive conduct. He was retaliating against them and now is facing serious criminal charges. Computer crime is now a serious issue which is investigated by the FBI and DHS quite vigorously in light of the potential for terrorist related activity.
One Nasty Beast is now claiming to be hacking into the County computer system to mask their real identity. If so they should be very worried. Very worried. I suspect this vile commenter is simply blowing smoke but the fact they have admitted intentionally falsifying their internet identity is forcing me to contact the appropriate authorities since this would be a serious crime.
