Cyber Crime

Hacktivist Martin Gottesfeld 10 years in prison for hospital cyberattack

The American hacktivist Martin Gottesfeld (34) has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for carrying out DDoS attacks against two healthcare organizations in the US
in 2014.

The alleged Anonymous member, Martin Gottesfeld, was accused of launching DDoS attacks against the two US healthcare organizations
in 2014, the Boston Children’s Hospital and the Wayside Youth and Family Support Network.

The man was participating in a hacking campaign in support of Justina Pelletier, a teen who was the subject of a custody dispute between her parents and the state of Massachusetts.

The state of Massachusetts obtained the custody of the teen after a
diagnosis of the Boston Children’s Hospital. Justina Pelletier was transferred to a facility that provides family support services to children, the Wayside Youth and Family Support Network.

Gottesfeld published a video on YouTube calling Anonymous members for action and asking them support to launch a cyber attack against the Boston Children’s Hospital asking for the return of Justina Pelletier to her parents. The man used a botnet of over 40,000 network routers that were infected with a customized malware.

The attack disrupted the Boston Children’s Hospital and also other medical facilities in the Longwood Medical Area. According to the Boston hospital, the attack caused losses for over $300,000, it also paralyzed the website used to collect donations causing an additional $300,000 losses.

The DDoS attack was launched to authorities, the DDoS attack aimed at the hospital was powered by tens of thousands of bots. The attack caused disruptions not only to the Boston Children’s Hospital, but also several other medical facilities in the Longwood Medical Area.

Source boston.com (Terri Barach photo via AP)

The Boston hospital claimed that the attack had cost it over $300,000 and led to the organization losing roughly $300,000 in donations due to the attack disabling its fundraising portal.

Gottesfeld was identified a few months after the attacks, police raided his home and seized his devices, but he was not arrested at the time.

In February 2016, the man along with his wife attempted to expatriate on a small boat, but a Disney Cruise Ship rescued them off the coast of Cuba, then the authorities arrested Gottesfeld.

On August 1, Gottesfeld was convicted by a federal jury of orchestrating disruptive computer attacks on Boston Children’s Hospital and Wayside Youth and Family Support Network.

The hacktivist has now been sentenced to 121 months in prison and the judge ordered to pay nearly $443,000 to compensate the damages.

Gottesfeld appeared at the hearing on Thursday at the U.S. District court in Boston, he said he planned to appeal but had no regrets.

“Gottesfeld, who beyond serving 121 months in prison must also pay nearly $443,000 in restitution, has been in custody since February 2016. He said he planned to appeal but had no regrets.” reported the Reuters.

“I wish I could have done more,” he said.

“It was your arrogance and misplaced pride that has been on display in this case from the very beginning that led you to believe you know more than the doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital,” Judge Gorton said.

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – DDoS, Martin Gottesfeld)

[adrotate banner=”5″] [adrotate banner=”13″]

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

Recent Posts

American fast-fashion firm Hot Topic hit by credential stuffing attacks

Hot Topic suffered credential stuffing attacks that exposed customers' personal information and partial payment data.…

15 mins ago

Cisco addressed high-severity flaws in IOS and IOS XE software

Cisco addressed multiple vulnerabilities in IOS and IOS XE software that can be exploited to…

14 hours ago

Google: China dominates government exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities in 2023

Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Mandiant reported a surge in the number of actively…

21 hours ago

Google addressed 2 Chrome zero-days demonstrated at Pwn2Own 2024

Google addressed two zero-day vulnerabilities in the Chrome web browser that have been demonstrated during…

1 day ago

INC Ransom stole 3TB of data from the National Health Service (NHS) of Scotland

The INC Ransom extortion group hacked the National Health Service (NHS) of Scotland and is threatening…

2 days ago

CISA adds Microsoft SharePoint bug disclosed at Pwn2Own to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds a Microsoft SharePoint vulnerability disclosed at the…

2 days ago

This website uses cookies.