A hacker who hacked and defaced more than 11,000 websites including the official website of New York’s West Point Military Academy and the website of New York’s Controller Scott Stringer has been arrested from Los Angeles County, California.
Billy Anderson, 41, used the name “AlfabetoVirtual” as his online handle to hack and deface government websites around the world before leaving pro-Palestinian messages on their homepage. He also worked with HighTech Brazil HackTeam to deface SriLankan Ministry of Finance website.
However, it was West Point Military’s Combating Terrorism Center website whose defacement in October 2016 put Anderson in the list of wanted cybercriminals. Anderson was arrested earlier today at his residence in Torrance, California, and will be presented in federal court in Los Angeles, California later today.
Screenshot of the deface page Anderson uploaded on New York City’s Comptroller website
According to the press release from US Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said that “Billy Anderson allegedly used specialized computer skills and knowledge to hack important U.S. military and government websites, as well as over 11,000 other websites around the world.”
“Among other possible effects, website defacements can disrupt an organization’s operations and damage its credibility. As alleged, Anderson committed more than 11,000 such acts over several years, impacting a wide spectrum of military, government and business entities. The charges filed against Anderson should serve as a reminder that committing these acts of cyber vandalism will not be tolerated,” said Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr.
Anderson is charged with two counts of computer fraud for causing damage to a protected computer, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and one count of computer fraud for unauthorized access to a United States Government computer, which carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison.
It seems like the authorities in the United States are hunting for cybercriminals. On 7th May 2018, a Romanian cybercriminal was sentenced to one year in prison for conducting DDoS attacks on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft‘s European servers back in 2010.
Image credit: Depositphotos
