The two teenagers face a maximum prison sentence of 10 years after deploying multiple DDoS attacks.
Infosecurity Magazine Explains:
The two 19-year-olds, Zachary Buchta of Maryland and Bradley Han Willem Van Rooy of the Netherlands, are allegedly members of the Lizard Squad hacking group, which aims denial-of-service attacks at various victims, including gaming, entertainment and media companies, and relies on a massive network of compromised computers and devices, according to the complaint.
Game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the mega-popular online game, World of Warcraft, in April experienced a DDoS attack that shut down a big swath of its games and servers. Lizard Squad claimed responsibility, and retweeted a post saying that an unidentified person broke into Blizzard’s employee database to lift phone numbers, emails and other sensitive information.
Federal authorities said that the two teens were allegedly operating cyber-attack-for-hire websites and are charged with conspiring to cause damage to protected computers. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.