AKRON, Ohio - A former University of Akron student will spend more than two years in a federal prison after using computers at the University to cripple other web sites, steal credit card information, and completely shut down the University's computer network.
Mitchell L. Frost, 23, of Bellevue, Ohio was also ordered to pay restitution of $10,000 to the University and an additional $40,000 to Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly for an attack on his website.
Court documents reveal that while a student at the University of Akron, between August 2006 and March 2007, Frost manipulated computers to, "launch cyber-attacks against numerous computer systems and websites."
His activities came to the attention of a University of Akron network engineer. According to court documents, when Frost was questioned about his computer activity he first, "denied any knowledge of the activities and indicated he was working for the FBI."
University Police next involved the Secret Service and continued to monitor Frost's computer activity, noting in court documents, "computer logs clearly reflected that (Frost) was involved in the programming and distribution of malicious computer code, attacking and compromising remote computer systems."
Prosecutors say Frost was bragging in computer chat sessions about attacks he had launched against the internet websites of O'Reilly and Ann Coulter and then presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.
University logs show he had initiated attacks against the websites at least 11 times.
O'Reilly submitted a victim impact statement at Frost sentencing that showed $41,000 in lost revenue, including money that individuals paid for subscriptions to his website, additional bandwidth charges and the cost for employees to reverse the damage.
The FBI eventually raided Frost's dorm room seizing a disc, which had been hidden above a ceiling tile, that stored credit card account numbers, card holders social security numbers, and information pertaining to their personal bank accounts.
On Frost's computer, federal documents show, authorities also found stolen credit card account information for approximately 136 credit card users, as well as log-in ID's and passwords for nearly 3,000 separate users.
Additional investigation showed that Frost had been searching the internet for vulnerable accounts and computers for about two-years.
In court documents, Federal officials say while trying to launch a computer attack against a computer game server at the University of Akron library, Frost unintentionally knocked the entire University of Akron computer network off-line for approximately 8 1/2 hours. All students, faculty and other staff members were unable to access the university computer network during that time.
A federal document describes Frost as, "not merely a naive young college student with an inquisitive mind and a thirst for knowledge, but rather by the age of 19, the defendant was a serious, hard-core, malicious computer hacker."
After pleading guilty to the charges in a two count information, Federal Prosecutors asked for a sentence of between 27 and 33 months.
U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells sentenced Frost to 30months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release. Wells has allowed Frost to self report for his prison sentence. He has 30 days report for his prison term.
Mitchell L. Frost, 23, of Bellevue, Ohio was also ordered to pay restitution of $10,000 to the University and an additional $40,000 to Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly for an attack on his website.
His activities came to the attention of a University of Akron network engineer. According to court documents, when Frost was questioned about his computer activity he first, "denied any knowledge of the activities and indicated he was working for the FBI."
University Police next involved the Secret Service and continued to monitor Frost's computer activity, noting in court documents, "computer logs clearly reflected that (Frost) was involved in the programming and distribution of malicious computer code, attacking and compromising remote computer systems."
Prosecutors say Frost was bragging in computer chat sessions about attacks he had launched against the internet websites of O'Reilly and Ann Coulter and then presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.
University logs show he had initiated attacks against the websites at least 11 times.
O'Reilly submitted a victim impact statement at Frost sentencing that showed $41,000 in lost revenue, including money that individuals paid for subscriptions to his website, additional bandwidth charges and the cost for employees to reverse the damage.
The FBI eventually raided Frost's dorm room seizing a disc, which had been hidden above a ceiling tile, that stored credit card account numbers, card holders social security numbers, and information pertaining to their personal bank accounts.
On Frost's computer, federal documents show, authorities also found stolen credit card account information for approximately 136 credit card users, as well as log-in ID's and passwords for nearly 3,000 separate users.
Additional investigation showed that Frost had been searching the internet for vulnerable accounts and computers for about two-years.
In court documents, Federal officials say while trying to launch a computer attack against a computer game server at the University of Akron library, Frost unintentionally knocked the entire University of Akron computer network off-line for approximately 8 1/2 hours. All students, faculty and other staff members were unable to access the university computer network during that time.
A federal document describes Frost as, "not merely a naive young college student with an inquisitive mind and a thirst for knowledge, but rather by the age of 19, the defendant was a serious, hard-core, malicious computer hacker."
After pleading guilty to the charges in a two count information, Federal Prosecutors asked for a sentence of between 27 and 33 months.
U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells sentenced Frost to 30months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release. Wells has allowed Frost to self report for his prison sentence. He has 30 days report for his prison term.
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