Dating Site Hacker’s Date With Jail For 8 Months

Matthew Byrne pleaded guilty of hacking onto the website of the dating agency loveandfriends.com and damaging some member profiles in August 2004.

He employed forceful ways of speculating passwords to infiltrate four profiles on loveandfriends' data file. Byrne could penetrate due to the easy access codes used by the users, but couldn't make it to the website's data bank or servers. Consequently, Byrne asked for payment in return for refraining from erasing the company's database.

After the defacement, a police probe conducted by the Computer Crime Unit recognized and apprehended Byrne, who confessed his hand in the violation.

Loveandfriends' managing director, Andy MacCabe, alleged that the hacker could penetrate the profiles of just four members with vulnerable passwords. Contrary to expectations, the cyber-terrorists couldn't infiltrate the financial databank or computer network of loveandfriends.

Southwark Crown court's Judge Rivlin maintained that it was "a very grave charge, on the verge of imprisonment ". He also praised policemen for their probe and research of the case.

Forensic test of his PC and media also exposed Byrne to be guilty of authoring the mass-mailing malevolent programs Mirsa A and Mirsa B, supposedly behind Fathers 4 Justice. Early in 2005, anti-virus marketers issued warnings about these mass mailers.

These worms came as an email attachment. Whenever the attachment was opened, the malware penetrated the Windows address book and also tried to circulate a Word document message about backing Fathers 4 Justice.

The Fathers 4 Justice group refused any connection and alleged its reputation had been tainted, as the corrupt worms were in no way linked with the movement.

Byrne confessed being guilty of a violation under Section three of the Computer Abuse Act 1990, which handles the alteration of content of automatic data processing system. This declares that it is a crime to perform an act, which produces an unlawful change of the contents of any computer, and then they had both the necessary target and data.

Related article: Dating Spam Deceives Users with Fake Advertisement

» SPAMfighter News - 11/13/2006