No fine for Bottle Domains hacker. Just good behaviour bond and $150 court costs.
A Perth magistrate has put 22 year old Brendan Roy Taylor on a 12 month good behaviour bond for hacking into Bottle Domains computer systems, downloading tens of thousands of customer records, and
trying to sell the credit card details online.
Taylor pleaded guilty to the charge of dishonestly dealing in personal financial information and, as well as being placed on a good behaviour bond, was ordered to pay court costs of $150.
However he appears not to have been fined, so the sentence is quite light, indeed little more than a slap on the wrist.
As we reported at the time, the hacking exploit netted Taylor some 50,000 plus Bottle Domain customer records, including credit-card details.
Taylor then offered the customer and card details for sale at a hacker web-site.
He was looking for as much as $100,000 as a sale price, and was disparaging about suggestions that the records were only worth $10,000.
In any event, an undercover Federal police officer was amongst those who Taylor invited to buy the details, and that is, apparently, how he got caught.
One report of the 19th June court proceedings in Perth says that the magistrate described Taylor as a “nerd” and remarked that Taylor understood things that he (i.e the magistrate) didn’t.
He also reportedly remarked that people could have lost their identities, i.e been exposed to identity theft, as a result of Taylor’s action.
Taylor’s conviction is newsworthy not just because it seems a remarkably light sentence for such a potentially serious crime.
Taylor’s fate is newsworthy because it was his actions that started a chain of events that is still playing out, after domain name industry regulator – Au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA)
– alleged Bottle Domains covered up Taylor’s hack.
Citing the cover-up as its reason, auDA is trying to strip Bottle Domains of its official registrar accreditation, but meeting resistance from Bottle’s owner – Nick Bolton – in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Co-incidentally, the Bottle Domains matter was back in the Supreme Court in Melbourne this week.
Bottle Domains owner, Nick Bolton, is continuing to fight AuDA’s efforts, notwithstanding that he has three other registrar licences and businesses including Domain Central.
Bolton’s solicitors in the action are Lander & Rodgers, whilst auDA is using Maddocks.
The trial is expected to go for three to five days, with further sittings next week.
For more information go to
www.auda.org.au
www.bottle.com.au
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