‘Mafiaboy’ Pleads Guilty to Jamming Web Sites

A teenage hacker nicknamed “Mafiaboy” pleaded guilty to 56 counts related to the crippling last year of Internet sites including Buy.com, EBay Inc. and Yahoo Inc., causing an estimated $1.7 billion in damage, Canadian officials said. The 16-year-old from the Montreal area, who cannot be identified under Canadian law protecting young offenders, pleaded guilty to 56 of 66 mischief charges just as his trial was about to begin, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. Most of the charges against the teenager were for unauthorized access to a computer. The prosecutor in the case, Louis Miville-Deschenes, withdrew the remaining charges. The youth was freed to await sentencing. Arguments on sentencing will be heard by a Quebec judge April 17 and 18. The teenager faces up to two years in detention and a $662 fine. The case stretches back to last February when a number of Web sites were crippled after being bombarded by thousands of messages over a short period of time. Known as a “denial of service” attack, the Internet invasion also jammed such sites as Excite and Amazon.com, preventing legitimate users from gaining access. Canadian police arrested the youth last April after an investigation that included taps on telephone and computer communications and the help of informants.