The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest Thursday of Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai, an 18-year-old self-described iOS developer accused of being responsible for what authorities called a potentially dangerous cyberattack waged against critical infrastructure.
Mr. Desai has been charged with three counts of felony computer tampering related to a cyberattack police say he caused Tuesday night by spreading a malicious link that nearly crashed the emergency call systems used by the Surprise Police Department.
The Surprise Police received over 100 emergency calls within minutes Tuesday evening and was “in immediate danger of losing service” because smartphone and tablet users were opening a malicious link hosted on the young man’s website, the the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Investigators were able to quickly shut down the site and identify Mr. Desai as its owner, according to the Sheriff’s Office. He was soon brought in for questioning and detailed how the attack unfolded, the statement said.
Mr. Desai allegedly told police that he had accidentally placed a modified javascript code on his website that forced iOS devices to phone the police when opened. The Sheriff’s Office said he claimed he intended to upload a non-harmful, “funny” script to his website that would force devices to reboot when opened, when may have accidentally pushed out the harmful version that dialed 911 instead.
Source - washingtontimes
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