MCAD Maritime Cyber Attack Database
Year2001 |
MonthSeptember |
Reference number20010901 |
Impact areaShore |
Incident locationHouston TX |
Incident countryUSA |
Victim countryUSA |
Victim identityPort of Houston |
Victim TypePort |
MethodDDoS |
In September 2001, the port of Houston got hit by a DDoS attack. The accused 19-year old teenager Aaron Caffrey from the UK slowed systems at the port of Houston in Texas to a crawl as the result of a revenge-attack actually aimed at a fellow chat-room user, called Bokkie. The systems were one of an number of intermediary server systems used in the PING flood attack. As a result the Computer Systems crashed, placing shipping at risk. Data (tides, water depths and weather) to help pilots navigate through the harbour and by shipping companies also became inaccessible. It turns out that Aaron didn’t have anything to do with the attack. An unidentified third party had planted the attack script on his system without his knowledge, set to run once he opened a particular file. He walked free from Southwark Crown Court after the jury found him not guilty of a single count of unauthorised modification of computer material.
