'Mafiaboy' faces up to 3 years in prison

April 19, 2000
Web posted at: 5:33 p.m. EDT (2133 GMT)

By D. Ian Hopper
CNN Interactive Technology Editor

(CNN) --Under Canadian law, "Mafiaboy" faces a maximum of three years in jail if convicted in February's denial of service attacks.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday that a 15-year-old boy who lives in the Montreal area was charged Monday with two counts of "mischief to data" in connection with the denial of service attack on CNN.com in February.

Since he is a minor, his name has not been released. Instead, authorities have referred to him only by his online handle, "Mafiaboy."

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As opposed to the United States, where individual states can criminally prosecute suspects, in Canada all criminal law is federal.

The statute covering "mischief to data" involves a suspect who "willfully destroys or alters data; renders data meaningless, useless or ineffective; obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use of data; or obstructs, interrupts or interferes with any person in the lawful use of data or denies access to data to any person who is entitled to access thereto."

CNN.com was hit with the distributed denial of service attack in February, making the site unreachable to legitimate users for nearly two hours, according to a CNN spokesperson.

Under the law, a person could face up to 10 years in prison per charge. However, since "Mafiaboy" is a minor, he won't be dealt with as harshly.

In any case, the boy will only be in jail until he is 18, three years at the most, depending on his birth date. If he is charged in youth court and serves time in a juvenile facility, his record will be expunged when he is an adult, Healy said.

Healy believes it is likely that the boy will be charged as a youth, where he may not face any jail time at all, depending on the specifics of the case. Youth crime is treated differently in different Canadian provinces, Healy said.

"The theory in Quebec, and this is a matter of considerable political controversy, is that if you can do something other than throw the book at them in criminal court, that would be preferable," Healy said.

Although the companies attacked were based in the United States, it is extremely unlikely that "Mafiaboy" will be extradited. The United States would have to prove that jurisdiction over the offense could not be established in Canada.

Since the boy is in Canada, and charges have already been placed there, along with a joint investigation with the FBI, there is virtually no chance that "Mafiaboy" will be charged in the United States, Healy said. The boy's age is a factor, as well.

"There have been instances where very young people have been sought for extradition, but they were not under 18," Healy said.

If "Mafiaboy" was tried in the United States, he would face the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which carries up to 10 years in jail and twice the total monetary damages to the victim compared to Canadian law. The FBI has estimated that the Web sites attacked in February withstood "hundreds of millions" of dollars in damages.

Healy considers this a very interesting case for Canada, which is fairly new to computer crime compared to the United States.

"We don't have a lot of experience with it so far. We certainly don't have it in this combination where you have some little nerd messing with the American economic system."

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