[BreachExchange] Indictment: Hackers Charged With Making Threats to Schools

[Destry Winant]

https://www.securityweek.com/indictment-hackers-charged-making-threats-schools

Two computer hackers were charged with sending false shooting and bomb
threats to hundreds of schools and other institutions in the U.S. and
Britain, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The men are members of Apophis Squad, a worldwide collective of
hackers intent on using the internet to “sow chaos,” the Department of
Justice said in Los Angeles.

Timothy Vaughn of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was arrested this
week by the FBI. The 20-year-old used the online handles
“WantedbyFeds” and “Hacker_R_US,” according to the indictment.

George Duke-Cohan, 19, of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, is currently
serving a prison sentence in Britain for a hoax threat targeting an
airliner. His internet usernames included “DigitalCrimes,” court
papers show.

It wasn’t immediately known if the defendants have attorneys who could
comment on the felony charges that include making threats to injure in
interstate commerce and making interstate threats involving
explosives.

The indictment alleges the Apophis Squad made false threats and
engaged in “swatting,” in which a phony report is made to trigger
deployment of emergency response teams.

The hackers made false threats of shootings and bombings last year
that were intended “to cause fear of imminent danger and did cause the
closure of hundreds of schools on two continents on multiple
occasions,” the indictment said. One phony threat targeted Los Angeles
International Airport.

Members of Apophis Squad used “spoofed” email addresses to make it
appear some threats had been sent by innocent parties, including the
mayor of London, according to court papers.

They also are accused of launching denial-of-service attacks, in which
a hacker disables a computer network by flooding it with data,
including ab attack that took down the website of a California
motorsports company for three days.

Duke-Cohan is accused in the indictment of calling the FBI field
office in Omaha, Nebraska, discussing the deployment of deadly
pathogens in the building, and threatening to rape and kill the wife
of an employee who answered the phone.