Threat Management, Network Security, Network Security

Californian sentenced to 26 months after star-crossed DDoS attack on telescope retailer

A California man was sentenced to 26 months in prison for launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against telescope retailer Astronomics and the online astronomy forum the company runs called Cloudy Nights. David Chesley Goodyear, of El Segundo, Calif., was found guilty by a jury last February of hitting both the Norman, Okla.-based retailer and forum back in August 2016, reported Robert Troester, acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. Troester presented evidence to the jury that Goodyear had belonged to the Cloudy Nights forum, but twice had been blocked from the site for violating its terms of service, which included sending threats to users, administrators and moderators. Goodyear used two aliases to place posts on Cloudy Nights on Aug. 9 and 13, 2016. In these posts he threatened to “talk with his contacts and hit the forum and Astronomics with a DoS attack, Troester said. “Evidence further showed that DDoS attacks against Astronomics and Cloudy Nights commenced that night and continued intermittently until the end of August 2016, when Goodyear was interviewed by law enforcement and admitted he was responsible for the attacks,” Troester said. Goodyear was also ordered to pay $27,352.51 in restitution to Astronomics, plus a $2,500 fine.

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