He used as an online name the name of the infamous gas with which the Nazis poisoned Jewish camp victims. He was held responsible for some of the most sensational hacks against corporate and government Web sites, including the White House. And at age 19, Eric Burns is going to greet the millennium behind bars.
Known online as Zyklon, Burns was sentenced to 15 months in prison and three years supervised probation, a $36,240 restitution payment, and a prohibition on touching a computer for three years after he is released from prison.
"I didn't really think it was too much of a big deal," said Burns, whose hits included a hit on the White House Web site last May. He had pleaded guilty in September to one felony count of intentional hacking, but he admitted involvement in a rash of electronic assaults.
He was indicted May 13 for breaking into the U.S. Information Agency's Web site and two other businesses. That indictment came four days after the White House site was nailed. Burns first said he wasn't involved in that hack, which featured the phrase "following peeps get some shouts" - said to be hacker slang for "hello" - and listed a dozen names, including Zyklon.
Federal prosecutors, the Associated Press reports, said Burns bragged about the White House hit online even before it actually went down. At his sentencing, Burns admitted he was among three people who altered the site to show a black Web page with the names of hacker organizations and the messages, "Your box was own3d" and "Stop all the war."
Burns says he will not identify his two partners to the Secret Service, in part because he believes the criminal penalties for hackers are too steep and that his punishment did not fit the crime, the AP says. "I'd rather not have what happened to me happen to anyone else," Burns tells the AP. "I don't really agree with the kind of sentencing range there is for the crime."
But Burns was also suspected of attacking computers on the Internet controlling Web sites for NATO, a U.S. Embassy, and even Vice President Albert Gore, the AP says. The USIA Web site was shut down for eight days after Burns' attack. The AP says the attacks cost the victimized government and businesses over $40,000. And when the White House site was hit, the AP continues, experts had to shut down the Web server, disconnect both the public and private computer networks from the Internet for two days and reconfigure the computer system, according to a prosecutor's statement.
Burns is expected to report to federal prison within four to six weeks, letting him spend Thanksgiving with his family. Although his sentence says he won't be allowed to use a computer during three years of supervised probation when he's released, the AP says, he's already planning to ask his probation officer whether he'll be allowed to use one for work.
