Tech Shout!

21 year-old Anthony Clark has pled guilty to charges that he was the man behind the 2003 attacks aimed at eBay and other online sites. Clark, from Oregon infected 20,000 computers with a worm and then used them to initiate denial of service attacks. When sentenced, Clark could possibly sentenced ten years in prison with three years probation, along with fines of upto $250,000.

The worm permitted Clark and several accomplices to administer infected machines from an IRC channel, where the group could send commands. Over a two-month period in July and August of 2003, Clark’s group launched attacks on several Web sites. Denial of service attacks, while not aimed directly at shutting down a Web server, attempted to prevent legal users from accessing sites by obstructing available bandwidth. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 3.