back to article US teen pleads guilty over Scientology DDoS attacks

A US teenager has admitted involvement in a high profile denial of service attack against Scientology websites last year. Dmitriy Guzner of Verona, New Jersey, 19, pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of using a botnet of compromised PCs in order to flood Church of Scientology-related websites with spurious traffic back in …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Charged?

    He should have been given a medal!

  2. Chris
    Black Helicopters

    A nice bit of drunken fun

    Such a shame, but was fun to be involved in it all at that time. Some of the prank calls I heard recorded to Scientology HQ's where hilarious, but the London summer protests where brill. Good times.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Allow me...

    to be the first to contribute to his defence fund - if such a thing exists; or do I just have to buy a sub to 4chan?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Guy Fawkes??!

    V for Vendetta shurely, if it's the anonymous I'm thinking of.

    lulz.

  5. Nick Palmer

    @Tathan Jones

    On the offchance that you're serious, V wore a Guy Fawkes mask.

  6. Winkypop Silver badge
    Alien

    CoS Law Firm?

    Xenu, Xenu and Thetan?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But the real question is...

    ...do the CoS have Battletoads in stock ?

  8. Gerard Krupa
    Coat

    How the found him

    "It's unclear how the authorities tracked down Guzner"

    Quite clearly a Scientologist at Operating Thetan level 8 or above was hired as a consultant and used his powers over matter, energy, space and time to locate him by detecting the huge cluster evil body thetans bending him to their will.

    Mine's the one with "I bet Xenu never claimed £380 of horse manure on expenses" written on the back.

  9. Camilla Smythe

    CoS whackjobs abound!! Be afraid, be very afraid.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/11/atlantis_mission_sts125_launch/

    Among the repairs, the spacewalks will see the installation of the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and Wide Field Camera 3 (details here) and the replacement of the telescope's busted data relay unit.

    The search for Xenu continues.

    Hubble telescope? Ay? Hubbard Telescope more like.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    @Tathan Jones

    The mask worn by V in V for Vendetta is a mask of Guy Fawkes.

    Might I suggest you think before you type?

    Anonymous because... well, just because.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Scientology

    A cult that preys on wealthy dumb asses.

    For some reason I find it hard to hate them.

    I mean really? Protesting Scientology seems a little silly when you think of all the other "legit" religions that people suicide bomb crowds in the name of.

    It seems to me that scientology is indirectly responsible for maybe 10 peoples deaths by not accepting treatment for its members.

    But then you look at the jehovahs, mormons, etc. They all don't accept blood transfusions.

    This causes more deaths than scientology does.

    A fool and his money are soon parted.

    That pretty much explains Scientology.

  12. cdilla

    A medal indeed

    Any action against the insidious cult of scientology should be praised.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    so a DDOS'er is charged

    but the church of scientology's "Fair Game" policy, enforced by the sea org never gets investigated?

    hmmm

    black copters because I always think of conspiracies when it comes to the CoS

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Well done!

    ...but you shouldn't have allowed yourself to be caught.

    Chin up. Be proud of what you've achieved. Use the case as a forum to publicise the wrongs of the CoS.

    *salute*

    ~ Anonymous, but hardly a coward.

    (P.S. Can we has a Guy Fawkes icon, reg?)

  15. Chris Simmons
    Joke

    @AC 14:17

    No, but they do a good line in Hypno-toads (with right Benders on the side).

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Re : @Tathan Jones

    "Might I suggest you think before you type?"

    Why should he be different to the rest of us?

    I'm going

  17. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    @AC, 13:03 GMT

    Check your facts - Mormons don't accept blood transfusions? Don't make things up to make yourself sound good :)

    As for CoS, they're a bunch of whack jobs; but so are most other religious folk. That is all.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Aw leave em alone

    Surely believing in thetans from outer space from the ideas of a SCI-Fi writer is no more whacky than beleiving a Omnipitant being created a son and stuffed him onto the earth to absolve us of our sins.

    In the words of the great BA Baraccus "I pity the fools"

    The scientologists ARE a bit scary, but then so are the catholic church and several other major religions. I have no intention of getting anywhere near any of them (lapsed catholic - divorced don't ya know!)

    p.s i actually liked the Battlefield Earth film, but the book was better.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Attack Co$, but use legal means

    I fully agree that the Co$ needs to be shut down, as it is a cult, not a religion. (At the least, they should loose their tax exempt status...)

    However, attacking them with illegal DoS attacks is not the way to do it.... that is just sinking to their level. The proper approach is peaceful protests, and educating the public as to the evils of Co$. (What other religion uses whatever means they can to ruin the lives of anyone who leaves the faith, and feels that they can do the same to anyone who is not a beliver. They even hire their own security forces to attack and kidnap peaceful protesters.)

    Keep up the pressure on Co$, but keep it legal. Let them do the illegal things, and get prosecuted for it.

    Mines the one I wear when I don't want to be recognized, with the Guy Fawkes mask in the pocket.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Give him a medal...

    If the judge had an ounce of self-respect, he'd be sentencing the defendant to one day in prison and a $1 fine.

    If anyone should be in gaol, it's the money-making racket (I wouldn't even dignify it with the title of 'cult') of Scientology.

    We all like to think we're free. But there's no civilised country that accepts the 'freedom' to believe in bank robbery, fraud, or a thousand other criminal activities - and it's time that Scientology was seen - and penalised - for the criminal racket that it is.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Anonymous Coward 12th May 2009 15:28 GMT

    I'm not sure you really should be quoting BA like that... Especially as he's a born again Christian!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Charging him?

    when everyone knows that eBaums did it?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Proxies

    He should have used moar.

    *Can't get me I'm behind over 9000 proxies*

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @ AC

    "Keep up the pressure on Co$, but keep it legal. Let them do the illegal things, and get prosecuted for it."

    The problem is they DON'T get prosecuted for it. My home state of Victoria, had the CoS, banned as a cult, but were over turned by the federal level, because they managed to get themselves deemed a religion.

    You do a quick Google search, and you see how many times they abuse the legal system to get off, not to mention the head of the thing has been charged with assault and other nasty crimes, but never brought to trial. People resort to illegal means, when legal ones fail. They have been deemed as a cult in the EU, I just wish other countries would get their act together.

    The Anon fight, and hack-tivism comes out of the public frustration, because the US refused to do them for being a cult. I am dark at my own governement, because they are light on cult busting too.

    CoS, Exclusive Brethern come to mind.

    Mines the one with the Guy Falkes mask, and the "SQL injection attacks for dummies" in the pocket.

  25. Chris Hatfield
    Happy

    Have you seen scientology-london.com?

    It's not what you expect it might be. And I am STUNNED lawyers have done nothing. Quite revealing - http://scientology-london.com/extra/888/

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @AC

    By purchasing a 4chan Platinum account a percentage of your payment will go towards Anonymous defense funds. As an added bonus, you'll also get to see extra Captain Picard images. ಠ_ಠ

  27. Matthew
    Unhappy

    give him a cheer

    hopefully the judge just gives him 1 day in prison or something

  28. Arse Face

    @ Chris Hatfield

    (un)fortunately my mobile service provider feels that the london scientology website is too dangerous for my eyes to see, so have blocked access to the site... Obviously someone's looking out for us by censoring this highly offensive material.

    At least youporn still works though.. it's a shame Jacqui Smith's hubby didn't know about this great free service

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Guy Fawkes?

    The Fawksian masks are more to do with EFG (Epic Fail Guy, stick figure cartoon running on the chans that fails so hard the result somehow becomes epic) who wears one for no reason at all.

    I see 4chan imploding if it doesn't sort out a better source of funding soon, as well as sort out getting moderators in other time zones so I don't get blasted with eye melting illegal images when the mods are all asleep, getting them banned by many countries so enjoy the fun while it lasts.

  30. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Alert

    So what?

    The kids was a nob and he got caught! Supposing he was doing the same to Muslim, Hindu, Buddist, Christian websites, would you be so quick to jump in and have a go?

    Easy to pick on Ron and his crackpot followers. If minor B-listers want to give some twat with an alien fetish, all their money, that's their business. Do you think that L. Ron and his mob are the only ones to keep interferring with government and police?

    The day my mates and I went to see Arch Enemy ( death metal ) at Brixton, the Scientologists had a little stand just outside Brixton tube station. I was there early but the alien-lovers seem to become more than a little worried when later on, 4,000 long-haired nutters flooded Brixton high street wearing all manner of wonderfully decorated t-shirts proclaiming things like free thought and alligiance to that guy named "Stan"!

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Whatever you think of scientology...

    ...and let me say that I'm no fan of it myself - a religion is defined by whether or not people genuinely believe it and have faith in it.

    As there are multitudes of people who DO believe that L. Ron Hubbard's writings were truthful, both within and without the CoS, Scientology is, unfortunately, a religion. The fact hat the founder of the religion was a charlatan and a fraud is pretty irrelevant now - many people have faith in scientology and there are even splinter groups who practice scientology but are not affiliated in any way with the CoS itself.

    The 'Anonymous' thing is cute, but really all it achieves is to antagonise the Scientologists and make them even more determined, i.e. it's counter-productive and, in a way, legitimises the scientologists.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    DDos Internet Protest

    The where just protesting, they didn't harm any one or try and steal credit card information. It wasn't like the went in to the church of Scientology stole all their money, raped their women and sprayed the place with ak47's.

    I mean come on!!

  33. MinionZero
    Stop

    Anonymous?

    Just goes to prove there's no such thing as Anonymous these days. If they want to pick you up to punish you, then they can.

    Given they way its going, within the next 10 years the Internet will be more like Big Brother than a source of information. How long after that, will the real world end up being watched as closely as the virtual world is starting to get watched?.

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