A hacker who disrupted Sony Online Entertainment and other gaming companies has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison.
Twenty-three-year-old Austin Thompson of Utah received the 27-month sentence on Tuesday in San Diego.
Prosecutors said Thompson carried out a series of distributed denial-of-service computer attacks against Sony and other targets in 2013 and 2014.
The attacks flood computer servers with traffic, making them impossible to access and forcing technicians to take them offline for hours. Thompson was ordered to pay $95,000 to cover damages to Sony Online, which was based in San Diego at the time and is now called Daybreak Games.
In a plea agreement, Thompson said he’d announce an imminent attack on the Twitter account “DerpTrolling,” then carry it out.
Related: California Man Gets 26-Month Prison Sentence for DDoS Attacks
Related: IT Specialist Convicted on Cyber Hacking Charges Sentenced
Related: Operator of Codeshop Cybercrime Marketplace Sentenced to Prison

More from Associated Press
- Democrats and Republicans Are Skeptical of US Spying Practices, an AP-NORC Poll Finds
- BBC, British Airways, Novia Scotia Among First Big-Name Victims in Global Supply-Chain Hack
- Microsoft Will Pay $20M to Settle US Charges of Illegally Collecting Children’s Data
- Insider Q&A: Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity In Military Tech
- Idaho Hospitals Working to Resume Full Operations After Cyberattack
- Major Massachusetts Health Insurer Hit by Ransomware Attack, Member Data May Be Compromised
- Biden Picks New NSA Head, Key to Support of Ukraine, Defense of US Elections
- White House Unveils New Efforts to Guide Federal Research of AI
Latest News
- In Other News: AI Regulation, Layoffs, US Aerospace Attacks, Post-Quantum Encryption
- Blackpoint Raises $190 Million to Help MSPs Combat Cyber Threats
- Google Introduces SAIF, a Framework for Secure AI Development and Use
- ‘Asylum Ambuscade’ Group Hit Thousands in Cybercrime, Espionage Campaigns
- Evidence Suggests Ransomware Group Knew About MOVEit Zero-Day Since 2021
- SaaS Ransomware Attack Hit Sharepoint Online Without Using a Compromised Endpoint
- Google Cloud Now Offering $1 Million Cryptomining Protection
- Democrats and Republicans Are Skeptical of US Spying Practices, an AP-NORC Poll Finds
