A New Hampshire hacker has been ordered to pay a $300,000 fine after admitting to his role in hacking attacks aimed at the construction of a 1,172-mile pipeline spanning three U.S. states. Joseph Earl Thomas Aubut of Conway confessed to being part of a hacking group that launched a series of DDoS attacks in 2016 in an attempt to prevent construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Construction of the $3.78 billion pipeline that runs under Lake Oahe began in June 2016, and its first oil was delivered in May 2017. In 2016, protests over the pipeline's environmental impact led to the largest gathering of Native Americans in a century.
According to records filed in U.S. in Concord, Aubut and other members of the hacking group “Anonymous” are conducting cyberattacks targeting an anonymous company based in Houston, Texas.
As Infosecurity Magazine reports, in 2016, Anonymous launched Operation No Dakota Access Pipeline (OpNoDAPL), conducting a series of DDoS attacks, publishing personal information of individuals involved in the pipeline project, and threatening their families and employees with further action if the pipeline's construction was not stopped.
Court documents state that WalmartAubut began recruiting members of “Anonymous” in the summer of 2016 to attack the anonymous company with DDoS attacks, in which they used malware to hit a victim’s site with high traffic volumes.
The hacker allegedly made videos on YouTube, which he posted under the pseudonym “Sergeant Anonymous,” to attract cybercriminals to participate in the attacks. He also threatened to dox, or publicly expose the personal informationof at least one executive working for the victim’s company, the governor of North Dakota, and a law enforcement officer.
Aubut pleaded guilty to federal charges, including one count of conspiracy to transmit information that destroys a protected computer, and was fined $300,000 to compensate the victim company, which hired consultants and invested in cybersecurity to prevent the attacks.
