Australian Charged of Hacking U.S. Gaming Network Has Asperger’s Syndrome
The mother of the young Australian man charged of hacking a U.S. gaming network has denied it was her son who did the crime because he has Asperger's syndrome.
The mother of 21-year-old Shane Duffy from Kingaroy said that while the young man was capable of doing the crime, it could not be appropriately said that he obtained the information all on his own.
"Shane's capable, but then the information he had and accessed was freely available on the internet. Somebody else has thrown the database out there," the mother only identified as Leah was quoted by news.com.au.
"What the police are saying is not correct ... he's not guilty of the charges he's accused of."
The mother said Mr Duffy stopped going to school in Year 4 because the education system did not want him. He had just stayed at home and taught himself about computers, acquiring the knowledge through the internet.
Mr Duffy is charged of computer hacking and misuse, fraud and property offences. He allegedly illegally accessed the network databases and files of U.S.-based video game company Riot Games. He then sold the information to players who wanted to seek out revenge on opponents for the online game League of Legends.
Police alleged he sold players' internet protocol (IP) addresses which then will be used to launch denial-of-service attacks on opponents' internet routers. Their Internet connection speed will then slow down, thus deteriorating ability to play online games.
Police claimed the offences occurred between July 14 and 26, 2013.
"What this guy allegedly did was set up his own website where you could purchase or get access to the IP addresses of other players," Detective Superintendent Brian Hay from Queensland Police's fraud and cybercrime group said.
"The idea [of selling IP addresses] being that you can facilitate a denial-of-service attack on opponents and slow down the speed at which they can play the game."