Surrey teen charged over Mumsnet hack attack

A Surrey man has been charged with hacking offences related to the attack on the Mumsnet website last year. David Gerrard Buchanan, 18, of Haslemere, Surrey, was charged on Saturday with three offences under the Computer Misuse Act following an investigation by the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit (MPCCU). Two of the alleged offences …

[Anonymous Coward]

Password guessing, ping of death, and fake phone calls counts as 'Hacking' these days?

Jeez. Kids these days.

[Paul Webb]

Re: Password guessing, ping of death, and fake phone calls counts as 'Hacking' these days?

They're too old for hacking.

[Trigun]

SWATing

Hacking is one thing, SWATing is another. The latter has the potential to get someone killed and give the cop that pulled the trigger life-time guilt. Twats.

[chivo243]

Re: SWATing

@Trigun

+1 for you, too bad I can't up vote more.

Like they say, "It's all fun and games until someone dies." I don't think kids these days get it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: SWATing

"Like they say, "It's all fun and games until someone dies." I don't think kids these days get it."

No, because most of them are babysat by the TV and everyone knows in real life you can get shot 3 dozen times and get up, then still fight 300 baddies with your bare hands

[Haku]

Re: SWATing

"No, because most of them are babysat by the TV and everyone knows in real life you can get shot 3 dozen times and get up, then still fight 300 baddies with your bare hands"

It has definitely got worse since I was a kid because back then the good & bad guys on tv would shoot at each other all day long and nobody got hit.

"If you have a problem... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... "

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: SWATing

We don't have quite as militarised a police force in the UK, but it's still a waste of resources that can put innocent lives in danger.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: SWATing

Indeed, one hopes the chances of getting killed by British police called to a fake emergency are still nil.... but as you say it's still a waste of resources.

On the other hand hacking mumsnet could be seen as a service to mankind.....

[theModge]

Re: SWATing

Indeed, one hopes the chances of getting killed by British police called to a fake emergency are still nil

Unless you have a sun tan and a beard or are, say, an electrician, from Brazil.

Though I must certainly concur that taking out mumsnet was indeed a service.

[poopoo]

Re: SWATing

... or a Down's Syndrome man playing in his cowboy costume.

[poopoo]

Re: SWATing

Unless you are a Down's Syndrome man playing in a cowboy costume or a backpacker in the underground.

[Banksy]

YABU.

[Leeroy]

Mumsnet

It's as bad as the Jeremy Kyle show from what the Mrs shows me.

1st world problems and all that. ..

[wolfetone]

Give him a job instead of putting him through the courts.

[Anonymous Coward]

Cleaning toilets, perhaps?

[Anonymous Coward]

In Feltham.

[Jamesit]

With a toothbrush.

[Peter X]

His _own_ toothbrush!

[wolfetone]

Why joke?

The kid has a talent, obviously a bigger talent than the clowns who set the site up in the first place. So what does this country do? Throw him in the slammer or give him a criminal record which will make his employment chances harder in the UK.

[Phil O'Sophical]

The kid has a talent, obviously a bigger talent than the clowns who set the site up in the first place.

That doesn''t entitle him to smash the site up, or 'swat' its owners. Bernie Madoff had talent too, should he have been "given" a job in a bank instead of being jailed?

[wolfetone]

"That doesn''t entitle him to smash the site up, or 'swat' its owners. Bernie Madoff had talent too, should he have been "given" a job in a bank instead of being jailed?"

Totally different situations. Frank Abagnale was committing fraud for years (even flew a plane, he can't fly a plane but he pretended he could). He was eventually caught, what happened to him? Given a job by the government to help them on fraud cases. The bloke hasn't done too badly for himself on the right side of the law since then.

This country has a fetish for punishing kids and young adults for crimes that the judge has absolutely no clue about and that the "victims" are embarrassed by the offender. In this case, the admins who swore blind they secured the site.

Prisons are seen by the public as places to be punished, when actually yes they are there to do time at Her Majesty's pleasure but they're also places to be rehabilitated and integrate the prisoner in to public life afterwards.

The problem though is that once the offender has came out of prison after doing their time, they try and integrate back in to society. They apply for jobs, but because you have to declare criminal convictions they won't get the job because the employer doesn't want an ex-con working for them. So what happens? The offender gets a really thankless job with no hope of improving their situation, or re-offend.

It's insane to ruin a kid or young adults life like this. There are plenty of things I did when I was 18 that 10 years on I would cringe at doing. And it's all well and good saying "Well when I was 18 I knew not to do X or what would happen if I do Y" - fair enough that's you. You aren't the rule.

[Anonymous Coward]

And it's all well and good saying "Well when I was 18 I knew not to do X or what would happen if I do Y" - fair enough that's you. You aren't the rule.

That's a depressing point of view. I rather think that, despite what you might see on EastEnders, people who knew how to behave themselves even when they were only 18 are the rule. Do you have kids? If so, have you brought them up to behave like that?

[Baskitcaise]

people who knew how to behave themselves even when they were only 18 are the rule

At 18 years of age I was shown how to kill a person with my bare hands, in fact IIRC it was by the age of 17.

All done by my government and my choice......

So you cannot use the history fuckin excuse on that one, yes we were probably "brung up better" but it was still there...

Sorry you just got my goat on that comment. Oh and by the way I am just coming up to my 60'th so an old fart in real live and getting even more seeing as how this here interwebnet stuff is going, can we not go back to BB please?

[DocJames]

@wolfetone

Whilst I agree that it's terrible to waste young lives, we do (as a society) need some level at which we send people to jail. I'm not convinced that he is going to jail just yet (what with the need for a trial and sentencing first), but from what is reported I do think he needs to change his approach. Which may require jail.

I also did stuff at 18 which I cringe over. I even did stuff at 28 that I cringe over... But making such a scene is foolish. It's likely to attract attention and the heavy hand of the law.

[James Hughes 1]

Re: @wolfetone

Just a quick note - it's not the courts that will ruin this blokes life. It was the bloke himself. He is clearly stupid enough to get caught, and stupid enough to do the crime in the first place.

I've always liked the phrase, if you cannot do the time, don't do the crime.

I did stupid things when I was 18, but I didn't break the law.

[Baskitcaise]

It's insane to ruin a kid or young adults life like this

Oh I do wish this was true, what I did in my teens ( many years ago ) I regret.

But it still sticks around, I used to have full military clearance to work on nukes etc....

Now I cannot even get a job due to a little indiscretion when I was younger. ( in this younger jargon, joy riding. )

Ah well I am glad I will be retiring this year and just tinkering with computers rather than fixing them. Keep on keeping on guys, love the commentards on here.

[Anonymous Coward]

"The kid has a talent"

What are you basing that on? It doesn't say how they got in, for all you know the total skill applied involved downloading an exploit kit, pointing it at Mumsnet and going and hanging out at the local bus stop for a few hours.

It doesn't say whether he's a skilled cracker or brainless skiddie, but I suspect the latter, because:

1. he got caught

2. he targetted Mumsnet

3. he thought this was a good idea

Even when I was that age I knew the phrase "you do it once, you do it big, you disappear and never do it again". Hitting Mumsnet stinks of skiddie.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mumsnet stinks of skiddie.

Bwah ha ha ha!

[WonkoTheSane]

I rather suspect his sentence will be suspended, he may get ankle-tagged for a few months, and then offered a job in Cheltenham.

[The Nazz]

I-spy an omission . . .

should it have been ..."against the high profile UK mis-parenting site"?

YMMV

[Valeyard]

mumsnet

bunch of shrieking full-time mummies prefixing every sentence with "well as a mother..." to slather their uneducated reactionary opinion over everything they find really objectionable (i.e. everything)

[James Hughes 1]

Re: mumsnet

And your point is.....what? That some websites deserve to be hacked, or the people running them to be swatted?

[Valeyard]

Re: mumsnet

No.you're trying to infer a point that isn't there. The content as written is all there is, that's why my posts aren't studied at sixth form ;)

[lansalot]

Ironically, he's probably crying for his mum round about now...