A 17-year-old London boy has been charged with computer misuse in connection with the massive DDoS attack on Spamhaus last year which led to worldwide internet disruption.
A brief statement from the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) on Friday said the unnamed youth was bailed to attend Camberwell Green Youth Court on 30 June.
The statement continued with the following:
“A 17 year old male from London has today been charged with computer misuse, fraud and money laundering offences following a National Crime Agency investigation.
He was arrested in April 2013 after a series of distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks which led to worldwide disruption of internet exchanges and services. On his arrest officers seized a number of electronic devices.”
In March 2013, anti-spam site Spamhaus suffered a massive DDoS attack which peaked at 300 gigabits per second, the largest ever recorded at the time.
The DNS reflection attack was so large that it is said to have caused “collateral damage” to other parts of the internet, with some users unable to access their favourite sites.
The first arrest in connection with the attack was made by Dutch police. In April 2013 they cuffed 35-year-old Netherlander Sven Olaf Kamphuis, who claimed to represent bulletproof hoster CyberBunker.
The firm, which claims to host anything except child pornography or content related to terrorism, was placed on a blacklist by Spamhaus shortly before the DDoS.
The Evening Standard then reported the arrest in London of a 16-year-old schoolboy after “significant sums of money” were found to be “flowing through his bank account”.
The boy, who is presumably the same individual appearing in Camberwell Youth court this week, was also found with his computer logged onto various suspicious looking forums and “virtual systems”.
Under UK law, anyone under 18 is deemed a child and therefore granted anonymity if arrested – although that will run out on the youth’s next birthday.