15-year-old hacker detained for hacking 259 sites

Austrian police detained a 15-year-old teenager suspected of hacking into sites of 259 companies over a 3-month period. Details - under the cut.

The authorities claim that the suspect crawled websites and databases for vulnerabilities and errors that he subsequently used. According to BMI , during the interrogation, the hacker confessed to hacking.

The guy, allegedly, after hacking, laid out the information in open access. He also boasted about his “achievements” on Twitter and published the stolen information there as well.
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The sites were attacked from January 2012 to March 2012 and were not limited to Austrian ones. By subject matter, they were completely different: from sports and to search portals.

The hacker took responsibility and explained this by saying that he was bored and wanted to prove himself. Perhaps he was inspired by the actions of hacktivists Anonymous.

After the hacker found a forum where points were given points for successful hacking sites, he set to work. Three months later, he was in the TOP 50 hackers out of about 2,000 registered on the forum.

The teenager used various hacker tools that are widely used on the Internet, including programs that help him remain anonymous. From time to time he left messages on hacked sites, and sometimes he just signed with his nickname ACK! 3STX.

In the end, the program let him down, and his IP address became available for BMI's C4 (the center for the fight against cybercrime). C4 has received many complaints from hacked companies since the beginning of the year, so it began to monitor the hacker. At the end of last month, its location was established, and then a search warrant was received.

Authorities can not voice the amount of damage received from the actions of a hacker, because the investigation is still ongoing.