Greg King Pleads Guilty

Post by **Tami** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:45 pm

In a statement issued earlier today, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento, California announced that Greg King has pleaded guilty to two counts of transmitting code to cause damage to a protected computer. As part of the plea agreement Greg King agreed to a two-year US Federal prison sentence. As this is a US Federal case, Greg King will be required to serve the full sentence without parole. Actual sentencing for the case is scheduled to take place on September 3, 2008 at which time the presiding Judge may make additional conditions within the sentence, including court-ordered restitution.

I would like to personally thank both FBI Special Agent Brian Scott and U.S. Attorney Matt Segal for the work they did with us to bring this case to a close, and also FBI Special Agents Matt Perry and Bruce Barron for their initial work when we first brought the case to the FBI Sacramento office. This has been a very long and sometimes very frustrating process for those of us at KillaNet who had to deal with Greg King, his friends, and their attacks against us, and while the guilty plea almost seems anti-climatic, we are glad to see the conclusion of this case with only the official sentencing left to be finalized.

The official press release from the US Attorney's office is attached below.
27k PDF file

King_gui..._release.pdf

Post by **Jim** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:51 pm

very awesome <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... /smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':)\' />

Wayne · Post by **Wayne** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:08 pm

Justice is sweet <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... /smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':)\' />

err0r · Post by **err0r** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:32 pm

It's really sad that someone so young ruined their life in this way. A felony record will haunt him the rest of his life. His talents could have served him much better. It's hard to realize that by clicking a few keys on your keyboard you can lose 2 years of your freedom and not to mention the stigma that will travel with you for the rest of your life.

I take no joy in seeing Greg punished. He caused some annoyances in my life online but I just can't muster any feeling other than sadness to see this outcome.

However my feelings do not negate the fact that this is a pretty big win for online site/business owners. People like Greg are a major threat to e-commerce. We all know the future is the net and people like Greg should realize what they are doing is not "funny". It is not some big joke. It is a very serious crime that can lead to very serious repercussions that will last the rest of their lives.

I hope Greg comes out of this with a new mindset and focuses his obvious talent onto better things.

Congratulations to everyone that worked so hard to show people that this sort of thing will not stand.

Post by **Shydragonchic** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:01 am

And a big thank you to Tami, Scott, and all the other people who worked long hours on seeing this through to the end. I think this is a big win, trail blazing, leading the way for all the other victims of these kinds of attacks to fight back.

Post by **Tami** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:13 am

I agree with you, err0r - the announcement today has felt very anti-climatic, and I do feel sorry for Greg in that he's chosen to ruin his life over something so petty and stupid. What I would really like to know, though - is why? Why hit the old TCN network, and why continue when we all went on to work on our own projects?

err0r · Post by **err0r** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:16 am

i think it was because he was just being a brat. I doubt he really thought he would get into serious trouble. The world is just now coming to grips with net crimes and how the laws governing them are being set into place. Many people don't realize that their little "fun" is actually a crime. For a long time the net was like the old wild west where anything went. Those days are coming to an end thanks to the actions of people like you that decide enough is enough and fight back for what's right. Greg is learning his lesson the hard way. My hope is he learns it.

Post by **Tami** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:42 am

I had a discussion about Greg and his motives with the US Attorney, and neither one of us came to a truly satisfactory conclusion. That said, I think you are correct - the internet is a big frontier, and some people use it as another dimension for crimes. I feel that as the slow-moving lawmakers catch up with the speed of technology, we'll see more and more intolerance for criminal behaviour, because the internet is so interwoven into so many daily lives, that it can almost be thought of as someone coming right into our places or business or our homes and committing a crime against us. One other area that Matt Segal and I talked about was how the field of fighting computer crime of all kinds is going to expand exponentially within the law enforcement field - perhaps opening up career possibilities for people who want to do some good with their talents.

btw - mop soup is bad for one's health, it often packs a real wallop <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... igwink.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\';)\' />

err0r · Post by **err0r** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:59 am

mine has a special ingredient <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... igwink.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\';)\' />

ner0 · Post by **ner0** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:00 am

Party time!

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 6:42 pm

I'm glad to know that we can finally 'rest' and not have to worry about him. It is indeed sad that he did choose to ruin his life this way, but hopefully when he is released he -can- do something constructive with his skills.

Good job, everyone!

Trom · Post by **Trom** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 12:57 pm

I too feel kind of sorry for that guy although it was a stupid thing to do for a guy that is plainly not stupid. However I do feel 2 years in prison is overkill as regards punishment, who was actually injured here, who lost out financially and by how much. I would probably feel easier about it if the same effort was made to punish the very ppl(or some of them at least) in the e-commerce business whom flood our PC's on a daily basis with Spyware and tracking software without our knowledge or premission. Many users have been in the situation wherby because of some spyware or the like we have been forced to re-install the o/s and likely loose data ect. And don't forget that the companies that do flood the net with this crap are making money from it.

Post by **Tami** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:19 pm

I have to respectfully disagree with you, Trom (btw, welcome to the community). Greg's attacks were completely unwarranted, this community did nothing to warrant the hate he spewed at us for 4 years other than tell him his behaviour and the disgusting links he posted in our G-rated all-ages chatroom were completely inappropriate. Correcting his behaviour dented his ego, and hence the attacks. We cannot make everything public yet as technically the case is still before the courts until the final sentencing is complete, however rest assured that his attacks did cause damage to our servers, with data and software at times having to be replaced due to damage or complete loss. We do have paying clients who were effected by these attacks as well. Then there is the issue of bandwidth overages which resulted in extra financial charges for this network. Then again, this is not the only crime for which he has a conviction - this is just the one people know about.

As for the spammers and malware herders - I agree, they do need to be caught and punished. As far as I know, those in the USA who are being caught by investigators are all receiving some pretty hefty jail time, but they are like script kiddies - get one off the net, two more pop up. Those of us who fall victim to crime of any type need to stand up and take (legal) action, because it is only with the additional information from us that the law enforcement agencies can move in faster. We can either stand by and let the criminals take over our 'net neighbourhood' or we can stand up and say 'enough' the choice is ours. We prefer to not stand by and watch as the criminals move in. We prefer watching them go to jail.

<img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... /smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':)\' />

err0r · Post by **err0r** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:10 pm

Spammers are beginning to pay the price for their misdeeds as well. As for what greg did: While the punishment can seem a bit harsh you have to look at the big picture. The crimes he committed didn't just cause a headache for a couple of website owners. It hurt the operation of businesses. I was actually kicked off the very first paid host i used because of a ddos attack. I let a couple of ppl use my site to host their forum. They upset some young kid ( it may have even been greg i don't even remember anymore ). The kid decides to ddos the site. He told my host he would stop if they cut me off. To the host it was easier to cut me off than to try and fight off the attacks which affected not only the site i had hosted but every site on their shared hosting. Which being the crap company they were was a ton. The kid effectively used blackmail to have my hosting removed. But as most hosting has a "we can cut you off for whatever" there wasn't much I could do about it.

The net is a huge resource for companies and business now and the law must protect their interests and their rights to run their business. From what i've read in the news the past few days Amazon has been dealing with an attack. A user commented what does it matter that the site was down for 20 minutes. Do you realize how much money amazon makes in twenty minutes? For every minute a business can't do their business their loss rises exponentially.

What greg did was a very serious offense. While it may have been a game to him the results of his actions cost businesses time and money. If he only gets two years he should thank his lucky stars as the max for what he did is 10 years. I really hate to see his life ruined but as ada said he had many chances. These people have to realize the net is changing and so are the laws governing it. What they are doing isn't a little harmless fun. I see people talk about Real life vs online life. I'm telling you the line separating them is disappearing. The net is becoming a big part of everyones real life whether they like it or not. Now you have to expect your online actions will have real life consequences.

radar · Post by **radar** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 2:31 am

I hope he learns his lesson well.

During the time I spent with Killanet, Greg King was a dark shadow over the community. I never knew what his true motivation in doing it was, but it seemed like the kind of thing where you show your friends "LOL LOOK I CAN TAKE DOWN A COMMUNITY LOLOLOL", which is finally getting real life penalties.

Good to see he's finally in jail, and good to see he had the balls to plead guilty, perhaps learning that what he was doing was wrong and finally realising that. I hope he comes out as a new person, and not with vengeance in his heart.