Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: News
Junior pleads guilty in hacking scheme | Interactive Feature
In federal court, Goldstein admits he helped cause crash of SEAS server in February 2006
Thomas Himes
In federal court Friday Engineering junior Ryan Goldstein pleaded guilty to helping a hacker crash the School of Engineering and Applied Science's server in February 2006.
Goldstein pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting another person to gain unauthorized access to a protected computer, a federal misdemeanor.
Goldstein was arrested last November, after a grand jury indicted him for conspiracy to commit computer fraud, a more severe offense than the charge to which Goldstein pleaded.
Goldstein remains enrolled at the University, according to University spokeswoman Lori Doyle. His sentencing is set for June 3.
Goldstein was one of eight people arrested last fall as part of an international FBI investigation.
He collaborated with Owen Walker, a New Zealand-based hacker known online as AKILL, to carry out attacks by using a fellow Penn student's username and password to access the Penn server.
The 2006 SEAS server crash was caused by an inundation of traffic on the server, and denied access to 4,000 students, faculty and staff.
His plea came just before his trial date, March 10. Goldstein requested a change-of-plea hearing last week.
Sentencing guidelines for the misdemeanor charge Goldstein are based on the estimated $6,000 in proprietary damages prosecutors say he caused.
Goldstein faces "zero to six months" of incarceration, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Levy said. Levy did not say which punishment he would ask for at sentencing.
However, Goldstein's lawyer, Ronald Levine, said that Goldstein "is eligible for probation."
If Goldstein had gone to trial on the charge of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, he could have faced up to five years in prison.
The plea also allows Goldstein to avoid a trial in which the potentially embarrassing details of his involvement in an online chat forum leading to his collaboration with Walker would be brought to light.
The indictment states that Goldstein was involved in "online disputes" with other Internet users, and wanted to retaliate against a forum that had banned him.
Goldstein "apologized for his actions" in court, Levine said.
Goldstein did not return phone calls for comment.
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 18
Upenn04
posted 3/03/08 @ 12:10 PM EST
what was the nature of the online disputes?
LHX
posted 3/03/08 @ 12:46 PM EST
Ryan's a great guy. I believe in you, man! :)
Penn 09
posted 3/03/08 @ 12:57 PM EST
Yeah, I was in a couple classes with Ryan last year, really nice and extremely intelligent. He'll get through this and do great things.
h4x0r
posted 3/03/08 @ 1:03 PM EST
Ryan = 1337
<3
93 Alum
posted 3/03/08 @ 1:55 PM EST
That interactive representation really provided a helpful visual of the scope and breadth of this crime. I must have missed what Texas had to do with all of this though. (Continued…)
Mr G
posted 3/03/08 @ 2:58 PM EST
The nature of the disputes is the fact that Mr Goldstein AKA Digerati is a child predator when he is online (whether he is the same offline is unknown) As for him being a nice person, well at least one of his many faces probably is quite charming but the others arn't so pleasant as can be seen from the logs on the below website. (Continued…)
student
posted 3/03/08 @ 3:08 PM EST
what a herb. who does this?
LOL
posted 3/03/08 @ 4:12 PM EST
If that was true, he would be charged with that, not for one count of a simple misdemeanor. It's a strict law that prosecutors MUST charge and pursue the most serious offense. (Continued…)
Ed
posted 3/03/08 @ 5:00 PM EST
Agreed with above. Excessive free speech can be just as dangerous as no free speech. And from what I've heard of Ryan and his already significant accomplishments, he's going to get to a position of power with or without the help of Penn. (Continued…)
Mr G
posted 3/03/08 @ 5:02 PM EST
heh, funny...you sound a lot like him in both your style of language and in your erroneous reasoning.
When somebody has several pictures of a person masterbating to a 13 year old boy then has 20 others of him coercing a 16 year old to show his penis and then has additional logs and images it is obvious to the normal observer what the subject of those images is. (Continued…)
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