Man Charged With Hacking Into and Defacing Military and Government Websites

© Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times.   The website of the office the New York City comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, above, was among… By MA...
© Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times.   The website of the office the New York City comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, above, was among…

By MAYA SALAM, The New York Times

A California man suspected of accessing and defacing numerous military, government and business websites, including that of West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center and the New York City Comptroller’s Office, was arrested Thursday on computer fraud charges.

Prosecutors believe that from 2015 through March 2018, Billy Ribeiro Anderson, under the online pseudonym AlfabetoVirtual, gained unauthorized access to computers and replaced publicly available content with the words “Hacked by AlfabetoVirtual,” “#freepalestine,” “#freegaza,” or some combination of the three. Hackers often claim responsibility for cybercrimes by adding their online pseudonyms to their defacements.

“Billy Anderson allegedly used specialized computer skills and knowledge to hack important U.S. military and government websites, as well as over 11,000 other websites around the world,” Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Thursday in a statement issued by the Department of Justice.

Mr. Anderson, 41, of Torrance, Calif., faces three counts of computer fraud, and could face up to 21 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

“Among other possible effects, website defacements can disrupt an organization’s operations and damage its credibility,” William F. Sweeney Jr., the assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.’s New York field office, said in the statement.

In July 2015, security vulnerabilities in a website for the New York City comptroller were exploited, and AlfabetoVirtual claimed responsibility for the intrusion and defacement.

In October 2016, AlfabetoVirtual claimed responsibility for defacing a website for the Combating Terrorism Center, an academic center at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.

According to the complaint, the comptroller’s office ultimately paid more than $5,000 to fix the damage, and the United States government paid more than $7,000 to fix West Point’s site.

Mr. Anderson’s lawyer could not be identified on Thursday, and Sagar K. Ravi, an assistant United States attorney who is expected to prosecute the case, could not immediately be reached.

Tampering with websites in this way is probably the most common type of hacking, Levi Gundert, a former United States Secret Service special agent within the Los Angeles Electronic Crimes Task Force, said in an interview on Thursday. And those looking for holes in web servers can find “so many different ways in,” he said. “There are hundreds of people who do this regularly.”

The behavior of AlfabetoVirtual, Mr. Gundert said, seemed to be primarily hacktivist activity intended to spread a message, and leaving mostly superficial damage. “He probably looked at it as a harmless hobby,” said Mr. Gundert, who now runs a threat intelligence research team at the internet technology company Recorded Future.

It was probably the importance of the sites that were targeted and the sheer number of sites that were hit that led prosecutors to proceed with a case, he said.

There’s a “ton of potential for real harm” when someone gains unauthorized access to web servers, said Mr. Gundert, who pointed out that the large-scale Equifax breach last year — which exposed the personal information of up to 145 million Americans — began with unauthorized access. “Organizations generally underestimate the damage that can be done.”

COMMENTS


A Part of dearJulius.com Inc.
Made with in NYC by Julius Choudhury
Name

Alabama,1,Apps,2,Arizona,1,Autos,731,Beauty and Style,88,Bollywood,29,Books,2,Business,797,California,8,Career,25,Celebrities,40,College Basketball,1,College Football,14,Colorado,1,Connecticut,1,Crime,554,Entertainment,1647,Facebook,3,Fashion,3,Fitness,4,Florida,3,Food and Drink,1,Food and Drinks,49,Football,1,Games,3,Google,16,Hawaii,8,Health,258,Health Care,2,Health News,251,Hollywood,1,Home and Garden,7,Horse Racing,4,Illinois,2,Instagram,1,Internet,1,Investing,36,Lifestyle,255,Markets,33,Massachusetts,6,Mental Health,1,Mississippi,1,MLB,22,Motorcycles,162,Movies,105,Music,121,NBA,21,New York,134,News,4066,NFL,185,NHL,8,Offbeat,987,Oregon,1,Personal Finance,18,Real Estate,20,Relationships,1,Samsung,16,Science,91,Security,2,Small Business,36,Smartphone,23,Soccer,7,Sports,266,Technology,163,Texas,1,Tips and Tricks,1,Travel,1397,TV,287,Twitter,1,US,2226,VR,1,Washington,7,Weather,12,
ltr
item
Daily News | local news, US news, world news and much more!: Man Charged With Hacking Into and Defacing Military and Government Websites
Man Charged With Hacking Into and Defacing Military and Government Websites
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ej-fa806_7HMKWzrcuOX9I9ZIEPmY5R7-G5m1sXp92QbFf3lyQQrdu7_NOe40kcygo-LLM_bGyvIbSHkW-A5tjgpY_3UILyiioCV82dakrBODCZFW2CQjO3_mBimN_O0sKX0ZPNOPN4/s1600/AAx5z5T.img.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ej-fa806_7HMKWzrcuOX9I9ZIEPmY5R7-G5m1sXp92QbFf3lyQQrdu7_NOe40kcygo-LLM_bGyvIbSHkW-A5tjgpY_3UILyiioCV82dakrBODCZFW2CQjO3_mBimN_O0sKX0ZPNOPN4/s72-c/AAx5z5T.img.jpg
Daily News | local news, US news, world news and much more!
https://www.dailynewsview.com/2018/05/man-charged-with-hacking-into-and.html
https://www.dailynewsview.com/
https://www.dailynewsview.com/
https://www.dailynewsview.com/2018/05/man-charged-with-hacking-into-and.html
true
7476738364740107800
UTF-8
Loaded All Posts Not found any posts VIEW ALL Readmore Reply Cancel reply Delete By Home PAGES POSTS View All RECOMMENDED FOR YOU LABEL ARCHIVE SEARCH ALL POSTS Not found any post match with your request Back Home Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat January February March April May June July August September October November December Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec just now 1 minute ago $$1$$ minutes ago 1 hour ago $$1$$ hours ago Yesterday $$1$$ days ago $$1$$ weeks ago more than 5 weeks ago Followers Follow THIS PREMIUM CONTENT IS LOCKED STEP 1: Share to a social network STEP 2: Click the link on your social network Copy All Code Select All Code All codes were copied to your clipboard Can not copy the codes / texts, please press [CTRL]+[C] (or CMD+C with Mac) to copy Table of Content