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Latest News
Computer hacker jailed
During August 2004 loveandfriends.com dating site was subject to a hacker attack. The hacker managed to gain control of four member profiles and deface them. The hacker was able to do this by using an automatic dictionary attack, which guesses likely passwords of random profiles. The profiles that were compromised had easily guessable passwords. The hacker did not at any time gain access to the "loveandfriends" database or web-servers. The matter was reported to police and through the work of the Computer Crime Unit (CCU) the hacker, Matthew Byrne was traced, identified and subsequently arrested. Matthew Byrne admitted the offences, and forensic examination of his computer and media revealed that he was responsible for the writing of the "MIRSA .A and MIRSA B" mass mailing worms. These mass mailers were noted and threat assessments and alerts issued by all major anti virus companies. Byrne pleaded guilty to an offence under Sec 3 Computer Misuse Act 1990, and was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a two year supervision order. HHJ Rivlin said it was "a very serious case, which was on the custody threshold". He also commended the investigating officers for their investigation and preparation of the case.
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