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Press Release

Greene County Man Pleads Guilty to Computer Hacking Charge

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of New York

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Michael J. Radcliffe II, a/k/a “Mystical,” age 28, of Elka Park, New York, pled guilty today to conspiring to commit computer fraud, a misdemeanor.

The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antionette T. Bacon and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In pleading guilty, Radcliffe admitted that he used Internet-connected computers to create and maintain botnets[1] for the purpose of engaging in Distributed Denial of Service (“DDOS”) attacks.[2]  He also admitted that from 2012 through October 2, 2018, he conspired with others to use botnets to carry out DDOS attacks

Radcliffe faces up to a year in prison when United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino sentences him on January 21, 2021.  A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

This case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett.

 

[1] “Botnet” is a term for a network (i.e., “net”) of computers that have been infected with malicious software (“malware”), allowing the infected computers to be used by the operator to perform repetitive functions, similar to a robot (i.e., “bot”).  The operator of a botnet can simultaneously command and control the infected computers in a botnet without the authorization and knowledge of the computers’ owners.

[2] A DDOS attack involves using a large network of computers, usually a botnet, to bombard an Internet-connected computer with repeated requests for information, to disable the computer by overloading it with too much information simultaneously. 

Updated October 8, 2021
Topic
Cybercrime
Component
USAO - New York, Northern