Aaron Caffrey of Shaftesbury, Dorset admitted that he was part
of a group of hackers called Allied Haxor Elite, and that his
computer had been used to launch a denial of service attack on the
Port of Houston's computer network in September 2001.
But in his defence, Caffrey said that he had never illegally
hacked into a computer and that the attack against the Port of
Houston's system was launched by hackers using a Trojan, and that
the Trojan was also used to plant evidence of the attack on his
machine.
A Trojan, or Trojan horse, is a program that is installed onto a
computer without the owner's knowledge, usually by deceiving the
owner about what he or she is getting when opening an e-mail
attachment or downloading a file. Once installed, the Trojan horse
can carry out malicious acts or give another user remote control of
the target computer.
However, according to reports, a forensic examination of
Caffrey's PC found attack tools but no trace of Trojan infection.
So Caffrey had to convince the jury that a Trojan could wipe
itself, arguing against prosecution claims that no such technology
existed. As news site TheRegister.co.uk observes, the case
potentially opens the floodgates for Trojan defences.
ComputerWeekly.com also notes that, during the trial, police and
IT security professionals expressed concern that language used in
the Computer Misuse Act of 1990 does not criminalise denial of
service attacks.
