Christmas is thought of fondly as a time where as children (and at times as adults) we eagerly ripped open the paper on our gifts, unimaginably excited by the thought of a new game to play. Unfortunately kids that did so this past Christmas may have had trouble playing some of those games online with friends, because thanks to a hacking group called the Lizard Squad, both the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network suffered downtime throughout that day.
At the time a hacking group called Lizard Squad claimed responsibility and it was only through the cooperation of Kim Dotcom that they halted their attack. Now, and though it may have taken six months, one of the members of the hacking group has been found guilty of upwards of 50,000 separate charges of criminal activity on a computer. Even so, his sentence has been surprisingly light.
Factoring in the Xbox and PlayStation network downing at Christmas, the 17-year-old Fin was given a two-year suspended sentence and what Polygon describes as a requirement to “speak out against cyber crime,” though there’s no hint in what capacity that would be.
Related: Lizard Squad chased by police, humbled by fellow hackers
While some have suggested that jail time would be extravagant for the relatively victimless crime of downing a computer network, others have pointed to the fact that the individual in question had been involved in an act known as “swatting,” whereby a false threat is called in to the authorities, in a manner that requires an armed response. Swatting has in some cases led to people being injured or shot.
Regardless, the sentence was light.
https://twitter.com/LizardLands/status/618640372265275392
As shown above, according to other Lizard Squad members on the official group Twitter account, they have “free passes.”
Do you think that 50,000+ hacking offences warrant a stiffer sentence?
