Two Israeli teens arrested for allegedly operating massive DDoS-for-hire service

[midian182]

Last week, Israeli law enforcement officials arrested two teenagers as part of an FBI investigation into their alleged ownership of vDOS, a “booter” service that people can use to carry out DDoS attacks against websites.

Famed security journalist Brian Krebs reported that Yarden Bidani and Itay Huri were responsible for "a majority" of the DDoS attacks that had been clogging up the internet over the past few years, earning the pair $618,000 in the process.

Krebs had written about vDOS after he received a leaked copy of its database earlier this summer, following a hack on the site itself. He said vDOS was responsible for launching more than 277 million seconds worth of attack time, or approximately 8.81 years worth of attack traffic, between April and July 2016.

Soon after Krebs published the story, his blog suffered a "heavy and sustained denial-of-service attack," part of which included the message “godiefaggot.”

The pair left plenty of clues which pointed at their identities. They had written a technical paper on DDoS attacks, Bidani’s old Facebook page mentioned the "AppleJ4ck" pseudonym he used on vDOS, and the site’s host server, email domain, and text notifications all led to the teenagers. Moreover, vDOS refused to attack any websites based in Israel.

It is unclear how much of a part the Krebs story played in the timing of Bidani and Huri’s arrest. With vDOS being part of an FBI investigation, there’s a chance that the story could have influenced the authorities’ decision to pick them up when they did.

Both teenagers are currently on bail and are under house arrest for ten days. Their passports have been taken away, and they are prohibited from using any telecom device for 30 days. Whether they’ll face extradition to the US is currently unknown. vDOS may have earned them over half a million dollars, but it seems that this is another case where, in the long run, crime doesn't pay.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/66291-two-israeli-teens-arrested-allegedly-operating-massive-ddos.html

 

[Uncle Al]

So how do you arrive at the proper punishment? I've heard it suggested that these kinds of offenders should have something equivalent to "10 years without technology" so some variation but my question is, how are you ever going to enforce it and in doing so, are you endangering their lives by eliminating things like basic cell phones? Here is just another good example where society and laws have not kept pace with the reality of society. We can blame technology, parents, etc. but the bottom line is that we need to consider these sorts of thing before release the next "great thing" on the world and sit back to see what happens .....

 

[mbrowne5061]

So how do you arrive at the proper punishment? I've heard it suggested that these kinds of offenders should have something equivalent to "10 years without technology" so some variation but my question is, how are you ever going to enforce it and in doing so, are you endangering their lives by eliminating things like basic cell phones? Here is just another good example where society and laws have not kept pace with the reality of society. We can blame technology, parents, etc. but the bottom line is that we need to consider these sorts of thing before release the next "great thing" on the world and sit back to see what happens .....

Personally, I would say the sentence length should be determined as a function of total attack time carried out by their service. Not necessarily at a 1:1 ratio - they would probably never see the light of day again - but some kind of ratio that would discourage anyone from developing or participating in DDoS attacks.

As for what kind of punishment, that is probably better determined by the authorities, who are more knowledgeable about the state of detention facilities and whether denying them access to certain technologies would be counter productive in their rehabilitation.

 

[mantissteam]

Thankfully Israel is not America and we dont imprison children
these kids are not going to be extradited they wont do any prison time either
they will be dealt in some way but they are going to be fine

 

[commanderasus]

No mention of what happened to all the money they made? Where did that go? House arrest and no jail time and who is going to make sure they don't handle any technology?. Crimes does not pay and they should be made to return all their ill gotten gains no matter where they live.

 

[mbrowne5061]

Thankfully Israel is not America and we dont imprison children
these kids are not going to be extradited they wont do any prison time either
they will be dealt in some way but they are going to be fine

Wasn't trying to imply they would be imprisoned. But I'm betting that they're still going to get a stern "don't do that again" as a punishment. I can see community service, and some kind of probation (or similar to how probation is supposed to work in the U.S. - you're 'free', but you need to check in an appointed state official periodically and avoid a specific list of activities).

 

[Yynxs]

Kill them. Period. Nothing they can do will repay the damage for others across the world except their death. Nothing. Maybe some other 'brain not formed' *****s will get the the message. Maybe not. These two, at least, will not cause further problems.