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Who was DerpTrolling?
DerpTrolling was the Twitter account used by Austin Thompson, a Utah resident. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), he used the account to announce attacks and later post images—described in the sentencing announcement as “scalps”—showing that victims’ servers had been taken down.
The DOJ’s account focuses on online gaming companies and servers, including then-Sony Online Entertainment. It does not provide a complete list of affected services.
What did the attacks do?
Thompson pleaded guilty to attacks conducted between December 2013 and January 2014. The DOJ said they took game servers and related computers around the world offline, often for hours at a time.
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A denial-of-service (DoS) attack disrupts access for legitimate users. In the DOJ’s description, an attacker floods a target with traffic until it cannot respond or crashes. For players, the immediate consequence can be that a game or its online services become unavailable while the target is overwhelmed.
What charge did Thompson plead guilty to?
On November 6, 2018, the DOJ announced that Thompson had pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego to Damage to a Protected Computer, under 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(5)(A). The government’s announcement listed the charge’s maximum penalties as ten years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. Those were the stated statutory maximums, not the sentence imposed.
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What sentence and restitution did he receive?
On July 2, 2019, Thompson was sentenced to 27 months in prison. The court also ordered him to pay $95,000 in restitution to Daybreak Games, formerly Sony Online Entertainment. Restitution is compensation ordered for a victim; the DOJ did not describe the $95,000 as a fine.
The 27-month term was substantially shorter than the ten-year maximum cited in the 2018 plea announcement. The DOJ’s sentencing release does not explain how the judge arrived at the term, and CyberScoop reported that its review of court records did not reveal the reason. The available accounts therefore do not establish why the judge selected that sentence.
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Case timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| December 2013–January 2014 | The period of the attacks covered by Thompson’s plea, targeting gaming companies and servers. |
| November 6, 2018 | The DOJ announced Thompson’s guilty plea to damaging a protected computer. |
| July 2, 2019 | The DOJ announced the 27-month prison sentence and $95,000 restitution order to Daybreak Games. |
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice, “Utah Man Sentenced for Computer Hacking Crime” (July 2, 2019)
- U.S. Department of Justice, “Utah Man Pleads Guilty to Denial-of-Service Computer Hacking Attacks” (November 6, 2018)
- CyberScoop, Sean Lyngaas, “’DerpTrolling’ attacks on gaming sites get Utah man 27 months in prison” (July 5, 2019)
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