Man jailed for setting up computer hacking business which caused chaos across the world

Europe

Adam Mudd, now 20, who mounted more than 600 attacks himself, developed the distributed denial of service (DDoS) tool from his bedroom, and started selling it when he was 16.

He sold the Titanium Stresser programme to cyber criminals across the globe between September 2013 and March 2015.

A total of 1.7 million attacks were carried out against more than 650,000 victims of which just over 52,000 were in the UK.

Victims included Xbox Live users, and players of the computer games Runescape and Minecraft.

Runescape was targeted 25,000 times, 1.4 per cent of the total attacks, and in the last four years the company spent nearly £6 million in attempting to mitigate from DDoS attacks.

Mudd raked in a total of $307,298.35 and 259.81 bitcoins - worth an overall £386,079 - by the time he was 18.

Using the username 'themuddfamily', he also carried out nearly 600 attacks himself against 181 victims from his bedroom in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire.

One attack on West Herts College in 2014, where he studied, was so large it may have hit 70 nearby schools and universities, including the University of Cambridge.

He attacked his college four times in 2014, later claiming it was because he had been mugged but no action was taken.

Mudd admitted computer hacking and money laundering last October. Today he was sentenced to two years in a young offenders' institution.

Mudd showed no emotion as the sentence was passed. Sentencing him, Judge Michael Topolski QC said:
The map of the world showing the geographical spread of these attacks which went on for 18 months is revealing, showing the truly worldwide nature.

IP addresses from Greenland to New Zealand, from Russia to Chile, were attacked.

The capacity for harm in this case was, in my judgment, very great.

There is clear evidence before me not only of actual damage, but also of significant financial benefit to the defendant.

It is now impossible to imagine a world without the internet. There is no part of life that is not touched by it.

In some way, these offences may be relatively easy to commit. But they are increasingly prevalent, and the public is entitled to be protected from them.

Source: itv