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NEW JERSEY MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO LAUNCHING ATTACK
THAT SHUT DOWN CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY WEBSITES
NEWARK, New Jersey – A New Jersey man pleaded guilty today to his role
in a cyber attack on Church of Scientology websites in January 2008 that rendered
the websites unavailable.
Dmitriy Guzner, 19, of Verona, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to computer
hacking charges originally filed in Los Angeles for his role in the distributed denial
of service (DDOS) attack against the Scientology websites. A DDOS attack occurs
where a large amount of malicious Internet traffic is directed at a website or a set
of websites. The target websites are unable to handle the high volume of Internet
traffic and therefore become unavailable to legitimate users.
According to the criminal information filed last year in United States District
Court in Los Angeles, Guzner participated in the attack because he considered
himself a member of an underground group called “Anonymous,†a group that has
led protests against the Church of Scientology at various locations across the
country.
Guzner is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge
Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. on August 24. As a result of today’s guilty plea, Guzner
faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
This case was investigated by the Los Angeles Field Office Electronic
Crimes Task Force, which includes the United States Secret Service, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department. The New York
Field Office Electronic Crimes Task Force, and the Newark Field Office and the
New Haven Resident Office of United States Secret Service assisted in the
investigation.
CONTACT: Assistant United States Attorney Wesley L. Hsu
Chief, Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section
(213) 894-3045
Release No. 09-061