Two Israeli Teens Face FBI Justice For vDOS Global DDoS Operation
Israeli authorities arrested the two teenagers, Itay Huri and Yarden Bidani, on Thursday as part of an investigation by the FBI. They were questioned and released the next day for what amounts to around $10,000 bond each. Authorities also seized their passports and placed them on house arrest—they've been ordered not to use the Internet or any kind of telecommunications device for 30 days, according to KrebsOnSecurity, Kaspersky's security blog.
As for Huri and Bidani, they didn't do a good job of hiding their identities or illegal behavior. Yarden kept a Facebook page with a bunch of messages from friends who referred to him as "AppleJ4ck," his hacker nickname, and had open discussions on DDoS attacks. In addition, the customer support system for vDOS was setup to send a text message to Huri's phone number in Israel, the same number he listed in registration records for a domain that was used to help manage the hacking site.
The pair also recently wrote a technical paper on DDoS attack strategies. Huri used his real name, while Bidani used an email address that was linked to one of the admins for vDOS. Given the number of tracks they collectively left, it's a little surprising it took four years to catch them (it's believed vDOS has been in operation since September 2012).