A Tennessee man who is suspected of being involved in at least five cyberattacks over the past two years will have his case heard 500 miles away from home, federal authorities announced on Monday.
Timothy French, 20, was arrested without incident at his home in Morristown last week, according to a statement published by the Department of Justice earlier this week.
Federal authorities say French carried out cyberattacks as part of the “NullCrew” computer hacking collective. One such attack was responsible for the publication of several thousand usernames and passwords that belonged to customers of a media organization, the government said.
The government didn’t name the media company allegedly targeted by French, but a search of Twitter accounts listed in a federal complaint unsealed last week revealed Canadian cable company and Internet service provider Bell Media was the target.
According to a criminal complaint obtained exclusively by TheBlot Magazine on Monday, French was identified after he engaged in several online conversations with a person who was working as a confidential informant for federal authorities. Among other things, French was identified by IP records obtained by Skype after a series of conversations with the informant, as well as information obtained from traffic records after French allegedly told the informant about a car accident he was in last February.
French was arrested “without incident” at his home last week. In an unusual move, federal authorities say his case will be tried in Chicago, some 500 miles away from where he lived.
A spokesperson for the federal court in Illinois declined to comment to TheBlot on Monday when asked why French would be tried in Illinois instead of Tennessee. However, information found in the federal complaint reveals that NullCrew’s alleged use of a computer server located in Chicago to carry out cyberattacks is mostly likely to reason why the case will be heard there.
On Tuesday, a Twitter account known to be used by NullCrew members tweeted out a statement blasting French and at least one other person believed to be apprehended by authorities for failing to use discretion when carrying out cyberattacks in the name of the group.
“I told that fucking idiot Timmy…that his dox was (sic) too easy to find and provided ways for him to escape it,” an unidentified author wrote in a statement posted to Pastebin. “Dox,” hacker parlance for “documents,” refers to records that could be used to unmask the true identity of someone who wishes to remain anonymous.
“Doxxing these two morons was super simple, which explains why the FBI could do it,” the statement continued. “Did you really think they wouldn’t subpoena Skype, fucking told you Timmy.”
The arrest is the latest in a string of cases prosecuted by federal authorities as part of the government’s crackdown on hacking collectives. Two years ago, five members of a similar collective known as Anonymous were prosecuted after a key member turned informant upon his arrest.
The informant, Hector Monsegur, received one year probation for his involvement in cyberattacks that caused millions of dollars in damage. Despite committing lesser offenses, those who were arrested based on information passed to authorities by Monsegur received jail sentences.
Federal authorities celebrated the so-called “dismantling” of Anonymous with the arrests. But hacking cases have been more of a headache than a reason to celebrate: In at least one high-profile case, the government failed hard.
Andrew Auernheimer, 28, was freed in March after an appellate court found that the government prosecuted him in the wrong state. He had been sentenced by a judge to four years in federal prison after a jury in New Jersey convicted him for his involvement in the collection of personal information from an unsecured AT&T server. Auernheimer has since demanded the government pay him more than 20,000 Bitcoin totaling $13.7 million as restitution.
