18 Year Old Charged with Hacking and DDoS Attack

David Gerrard Buchanan, 18, from Haslemere, Surrey, carried out an attack on the popular website Mumsnet where he breached user accounts, stole passwords and knocked the site off line with a DDoS attack.

He has been charged with three counts of the Computer Misuse Act 1990. He managed to break into the server, gain admin privileges and redirect the site to a twitter account called @DadSecurity. He left messages such as:

“Now is the start of something wonderful”
“RIP Mumsnet”
“Nothing will be normal anymore”
“Our DDoS attacks are keeping you offline”

Buchanan then got nasty and started a "swatting" attack that saw the Mumsnet co-founder Justine Roberts and a Mumsnet user confronted with a police raid on their residences.

Roberts said about the "swatting" attack:

“An armed response team turned up at my house last week in the middle of the night, after reports of a gunman prowling around. A Mumsnet user who engaged with @DadSecurity on Twitter was warned to “prepare to be swatted by the best” in a tweet that included a picture of a swat team, after which police arrived at her house late at night following a report of gunshots. Needless to say, she and her young family were pretty shaken up.”

Authorities are still looking into the matter while Buchanan has his day in court on June 7th.

Source: We Live Security