Coolio \nCONCORD, NH - It turns out Dennis Moran, a.k.a. Coolio (the online hacker, not the rap music star) may really have been kidding around about spam-bombing some of the Internet's heaviest hitting sites last month. He's been arrested for hacking the Los Angeles Police Department's DARE anti-drug program Web site - but he's been ruled out, apparently, as a suspect in the February spam-bomb denial-of-service attacks.
The 17-year-old New Hampshire hacker turned himself in to police here Wednesday and was hit with a two-count felony indictment for the DARE hack, which included altering the page to include pro-drug slogans and images, including - according to one report - a picture of Donald Duck with a hypodermic needle in his arm.
The LAPD says the hit occurred in mid-November 1999. Meanwhile, Moran has also admitted to two other heavyweight hacks - one against the Web site for the U.S. Commerce Department's Chemical Weapons Convention home page; the other, the Web site of RSA Security, a Massachusetts-based e-security firm which will host a major Internet security conference in Munch in early April.
Moran had been suspected and questioned in relation to the spam-bomb sorties which froze Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon.com, CNN.com, and other high-profile Web sites in early February, but authorities now say he wasn't responsible for those hits. Moran has maintained he was kidding around when he took credit for those hits after correspondents in an online chat room kiddingly accused him of doing so, according to APBNews.
Moran is free on $5,000 bond and is scheduled for an April 6 arraignment. He could face up to 30 years in prison if he's convicted on both felony charges as well as a $4,000 fine. Meanwhile, federal and regional law enforcement authorities continue probing the February spam-bomb attacks.
