- Title: British "Spiderman" sentenced in massive German router attack
- Date: 28th July 2017
- Summary: BONN, GERMANY (FILE) (NOVEMBER 2016) (REUTERS) TELEKOM HEADQUARTERS IN BONN TELEKOM SIGN VARIOUS OF TELEKOM ROUTERS TELEKOM HEADQUARTERS
- Embargoed: 11th August 2017 13:12
- Keywords: Deutsche Telekom hacker router Mirai botnet
- Location: COLOGNE, GERMANY
- City: COLOGNE, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime
- Reuters ID: LVA0026RMQIZ1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A 29-year-old British hacker-for-hire was convicted by a German court on Friday (July 28) after he confessed to unleashing a cyber attack that knocked out the internet for around one million Deutsche Telekom customers.
The regional court in Cologne handed the man, named only as Daniel K., a suspended sentence of one year and eight months for attempted commercial computer sabotage. The maximum sentence was up to 10 years, and prosecutors had asked for two years.
The convicted hacker, who used the online alias "Spiderman", among other names, also faces criminal charges in Britain, where authorities have requested his extradition.
Last November, the man used a variant of the malicious Mirai botnet code to attack internet routers and turn them into remotely controlled "bots" for mounting large-scale attacks that disrupted websites and computer systems, police have said.
The botnet, once launched, spread out of control around the world, knocking out internet router equipment at up to a dozen telecom operators around the world, with Germany's Deutsche Telekom far and away the hardest hit.
British police arrested Daniel K. in February at Luton airport, north of London, on a request from Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) to charge him with selling his botnet to online criminals. He was sent to Germany for trial. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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