Man Pleads Guilty to eBay DoS Attacks
A 21 year-old Oregon man has pled guilty to charges that he was behind attacks targeted at eBay and other online sites in 2003. Anthony Clark infected 20,000 computers with a worm and then used them to launch denial of service attacks. Clark could face up to ten years in prison with three years probation, along with fines of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced.
The worm allowed Clark and several accomplices to control infected machines from an IRC channel, where the group could send commands. Over a two-month period in July and August of 2003, Clark's group launched attacks on several Web sites. Denial of service attacks, while not aimed directly at shutting down a Web server, attempt to prevent legitimate users from accessing sites by clogging up available bandwidth. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 3.