back to article Castaway hacker guilty of sedating children's hospital computers

A self-styled Anonymous hacker who attempted to flee the US in a sailboat has been convicted of two felonies for his role in a 2014 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on a children's hospital. A jury in the Massachusetts US district court found Martin Gottesfeld guilty this week on charges of conspiracy to …

  1. Waseem Alkurdi

    Can't find a better way to escape than from a US port?

    Isn't there a possibility of crossing the land border with Canada, then escaping from there?

    Maybe apply for asylum/refugee status?

    1. EJ

      It's a bit further of a sail to Cuba from Canada than from Florida.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      'Isn't there a possibility of crossing the land border with Canada'

      It used to be piss easy to cross over at Detroit (outbound to Windsor). But now IDK..... Has any Reg'er crossed recently?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...after being blown off course, he and his spouse had to be plucked from the water by a Disney cruise ship..."

    What's that you say? He lost his (getta) way? Okay, he may have his heart in the right place, but his brain appears to have gone off course.

    SKIPPER!!!

    1. Baldrickk

      picked up by Steamboat Willie?

  3. Mayday
    WTF?

    Sail to Cuba?

    WTF was he hoping to do when he got there? Get a free house and smoke some cigars? Shack up at Guantanamo?

  4. Mark 85

    Protected computer?

    I had to look this up. Seems it's applies to financial institutions only. Looks like all it does is provide a definition for law enforcement even if the computer is on the web without any AV, passwords, etc. The concept seems a bit strange and impractical but I'm just a normal user.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Protected computer?

      Ditto.

      By "damaged" I had assumed physical damage. Committed over the interwebs.

      He didn't "damage" anything.

      The law is an ass.

    2. Claptrap314 Silver badge

      Re: Protected computer?

      First, IANAL. But I've read enough law to be confident to answer this one. It's formal language of US law. For instance, "Person" refers to an entity that can engage in contracts and/or be held accountable for crimes. In this case, "protected" means that they are the subject being protected by the statute in question. You have have heard the term "protected class" from time to time. The precise meaning of that term depends on the statute in question.

  5. Valeyard

    classic hackivists

    simplify everything and jump on the hatewagon.

    And yet if the social workers had allowed injured children to go free without any further investigation they'd jump on a baby-P-esque hate brigade instead.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: classic hackivists

      I agree: IANAL but IAAD, and there is a lot of weirdness out there, and this case does not seem clear cut either way. You have to approach patients with these conditions with an open but sceptical mind.

      "I've seen things you people would not believe" e.g. a Paralympian confined to a wheelchair but who has no neurological deficit.

      While there are still some strange conditions in medicine that we cannot diagnose, I see a lot more patients for whom it more convenient and/ or acceptable to assign a medical diagnosis on a set of unlikely and vague symptoms, and causes harm in that:

      a) the correct treatment is not given for the condition the patient does have.

      b) it can prevent an alternative (correct) diagnosis being made.

      This is complicated in this case when the patient is a child, and often the parent-child relationship is dysfunctional - almost a 'folie-a-deux'.

      These change over time - in the past 'neurosthenia' was in vogue but current favourites are Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalitis and Lyme disease. (EDS and Lyme are real conditions but with inconsitent diagnosis criteria, complicating the picture, and making untangling the mess very difficult).

      If you are wondering why I am an AC, any doctor practicing in this area will tell you that these patients have plenty of time on their hands and despite their totally incapacitating symptoms, they seem to react very energetically to any suggestion that their symptoms do not have a pathological/ organic basis. If you don't believe me, see Sir Simon Wessely's papers on this. There's a guy who has earned his K the hard way!

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