Hacker 'Mafiaboy' changes plea to guilty
A teenage computer hacker known as Mafiaboy has been released on bail after pleading guilty to most of the 66 charges of mischief against him.
The 16-year-old had been due to stand trial over attacks on several major websites including CNN, Yahoo and Amazon when he changed his plea on most of the charges to guilty.
The youth was also accused of security breaches of other sites belonging institutions such as Yale and Harvard universities.
The youth, who cannot be identified under Canadian law, will be freed pending sentencing. He had previously pleaded not guilty on all charges.
The trial had been expected to last three to six months and to involve many witnesses and complex technical testimony.
The youth was first arrested on two mischief charges last April after someone calling himself Mafiaboy crippled CNN's website last February. Last August, prosecutors added 64 new hacking and mischief charges.
Ten counts of mischief related to denial-of-service attacks on the websites, including Yahoo, Amazon.com, e-Bay, and Dell.com.
The sites were bombarded with thousands of simultaneous messages, which prevented legitimate users from accessing them.
The remaining charges deal with hacking into computers, many of them located at American universities.
