Man Sentenced In LA To Two Years In Prison For Internet Service Attacks

A man was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to 24 months in federal prison for running websites that allowed paying users to launch powerful distributed denial of service — or DDoS — attacks that flood targeted computers with information and prevent them from being able to access the internet.

Matthew Gatrel, 33, of St. Charles, Illinois, was found guilty last year of one federal count each of conspiracy to commit unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“Gatrel ran a criminal enterprise designed around launching hundreds of thousands of cyber-attacks on behalf of hundreds of customers,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “He also provided infrastructure and resources for other cybercriminals to run their own businesses launching these same kinds of attacks. These attacks victimized wide swaths of American society and compromised computers around the world.”