October 23, 2008
U. of Pennsylvania Student Gets 3 Months in Jail in Botnet Case
A federal judge in Philadelphia sentenced a University of Pennsylvania student who directed large-scale botnet attacks to three months in jail and nine months of confinement in a halfway house and at home, according to a report on The New York Times’ Web site.
The student, Ryan Goldstein, will be on probation for five years. He also will be required to pay the government a $30,000 fine and to pay the university $6,100 in restitution because one of its servers crashed while Mr. Goldstein was using it to conduct an attack using a 50,000-machine botnet. A botnet is a network of computers that have been made into digital zombies controlled by a hacker or hackers.
After negotiating with prosecutors, Mr. Goldstein pleaded guilty in February to charges of aiding and abetting another computer hacker to break into a computer remotely. He could have been sentenced to up to six months in jail. —Lawrence Biemiller
Posted on Thursday October 23, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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He should have gotten 3 years. 3 months is a joke.
— Joe the Screwed Oct 24, 08:43 AM #
It does sound too lenient. Don’t students receive about the same punishment for pirating music? And what was Mr. Goldstein attacking with his botnet?
— TRB Oct 24, 09:07 AM #
The sentencing does not fit the crime or cost. Schools are having to spend millions in security because of people like this and the sentence should have been years to set an example.
— concerned Oct 24, 09:29 AM #
I wonder how his criminal activity would be assessed if he was not a college student? It seems when college students commit crimes, our society takes a more casual attitude towards the criminal activity.
As I recall, one of the terrorist fears our government raised after 9/11 was that there would be a coordinated cyber-attack on our nation’s financial infrastructure (though given current conditions such an attack might be considered pointless.) How is his crime different from the supposed terrorist threat?
— Rick Oct 24, 09:43 AM #
On the other hand, if the object of the exercise is to deter this particular individual from repeating his offence rather than sending a message to others, three months sounds about right.
— Gustave Oct 24, 10:35 AM #
With this “LARK”, he should also have to pay ALL cost associated with this ‘folly.”
— Joe the Screwed Oct 24, 10:52 AM #
Time in jail is no cake walk. Three months is a long time for someone who did not commit a violent offence, have you ever been to jail? If you have you will know what I mean.
Yes, students have recieved 6 months or more for pirating music and much heftier fines.
In Philidelphia according to the Division of Planning, Research, Statistics and Grants and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections it costs about $75 per day per inmate, this is $6,750 for 90 days. And, just think of how much it is going to cost the county to keep track of thsi guy for five years of probation, plus the cost of trying to make sure he pays his fines. Don’t you think that this person (just as many other people that get jail time instead of some kind of rehabilitation or constructive restitution) would have better served his community by working the time and money off by volunteering to teach others, clean up, refurbish computers for low income people, be required to DO something instead?
2c
Sjane
— Sjane Oct 24, 06:05 PM #
This article does not even tell half of the story, Ryan aka Digerati is a child predator and pornographer, he was let off of the child abuse charges in return for him helping nab some bot-herders. He was found with thousands of pictures of child porn on his computer, THAT to me is allot worse than some ddos attack. Now he will be back on our streets in no time to victimize some other poor children, the prosecutors in this case should be fired.
Sjane, he should be “Required” to register as a sexual predator and spend considerably more time in jail than three months.
What if it was one of your kids he victimized?
— cm2 Oct 26, 11:33 AM #
More than a few months in the slam might teach this bastard a few things. U of PA is his school – golly, who is paying the tuition and fees at this elite place? Some of us PA taxpayers, perhaps?
Maybe his parents should help pick up the tab for this destructive event? No -he should himself. This was not a college prank – a knowing felony is a felony.
And he should be booted out – likely not even worthy of a third level Community College – perhaps a tech school where he can learn how much fun it is to put down a roof in mid August.
— AW Oct 28, 02:51 PM #