Watford teen hacker admits making bomb threats to schools

[hadi123]

A British teenager has pleaded guilty to sending bomb threats to thousands of schools and a United Airlines flight.

George Duke-Cohan, 19, admitted making the threats to UK schools last March, causing 400 of them to be evacuated.

Speaking to the perpetrator at the time, Sky News learned that the emails were spoofed to look like they had been sent by Minecraft gaming network VeltPvP due to the hoaxer's feud with the group.

However, following the media attention paid to the hoaxes, Duke-Cohan, from Watford in Hertfordshire, continued to send hoax threats to a number of victims.

He was arrested just days after sending the hoax emails, but was released on pre-charge bail with conditions restricting his use of technology.

However, according to the National Crime Agency, Duke-Cohan continued to send bomb hoaxes while under investigation, including another mass email to schools in the UK and US claiming pipe bombs had been planted on their premises.

The agency added that last month, Duke-Cohan or his associates, using the hacker group name Apophis Squad on Twitter, claimed a United Airlines flight had been grounded due to their actions.

The NCA, working with the FBI, stated Duke-Cohan had made bomb threats to the US-bound flight by calling both San Francisco airport and police.

"In a recording of one of the phone calls which was made while the plane was in the air, he takes on the persona of a worried father and claims his daughter contacted him from the flight to say it had been hijacked by gunmen, one of whom had a bomb," the NCA said.

When the plane landed it was held in a quarantined area of the airport, and all 295 passengers were forced to remain aboard - disrupting their travel plans and causing financial damage to the airline.

Duke-Cohan was arrested for a third time at his home in Watford on 31 August, when the police found multiple electronic devices which he was banned from using.

The NCA's senior investigating officer Marc Horsfall said: "George Duke-Cohan made a series of bomb threats that caused serious worry and inconvenience to thousands of people, not least an international airline.

"He carried out these threats hidden behind a computer screen for his own enjoyment, with no consideration for the effect he was having on others.

"Despite being arrested and having conditions imposed restricting his use of technology, he persistently broke those conditions to continue his wave of violent threats."

https://news.sky.com/story/watford-teen-hacker-admits-making-bomb-threats-to-schools-11490152

 

[hadi123]

This guy was in my class. Was always seen as a loser with no friends. I felt a bit of sympathy for him so I was relatively nice to him but he was always interested in this hacking business. He would get a lot of websites banned on our school wi-fi, which is a shame as people would use those websites, think he just done it for the sake of it and to kiss up to the teachers. In hindsight, easy to see why nobody liked him! Seems like a nutcase. I can only imagine what the families of the people were going through when they thought their loved ones were in danger and this idiot thought it was funny playing with people's emotions like that.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

This guy was in my class. Was always seen as a loser with no friends. I felt a bit of sympathy for him so I was relatively nice to him but he was always interested in this hacking business. He would get a lot of websites banned on our school wi-fi, which is a shame as people would use those websites, think he just done it for the sake of it and to kiss up to the teachers. In hindsight, easy to see why nobody liked him! Seems like a nutcase. I can only imagine what the families of the people were going through when they thought their loved ones were in danger and this idiot thought it was funny playing with people's emotions like that.

Wow. Must be shocking to hear about someone you know being arrested for such a crime.

 

[hadi123]

A teenager has been jailed after making bogus bomb threats to hundreds of UK schools and sparking an airport security scare.

George Duke-Cohan twice targeted schools in the UK and US with hoax messages that triggered evacuations, before phoning in a fake report of a hijacked aircraft while under investigation.

The 19-year-old, from Watford, Hertfordshire, emailed Marlborough College in Wiltshire and referred to the Columbine high school shooting.

He was jailed on Friday for three years by Judge Richard Foster at Luton crown court.

The recorder of Luton told him: “You knew exactly what you were doing and why you were doing it, and you knew full well the havoc that would follow. You were playing a cat-and-mouse game with the authorities.

“You were playing a game for your own perverted sense of fun in full knowledge of the consequences.”

In his sentencing remarks, the judge added: “The scale of what you did was enormous. Schools were evacuated and, where they were not, those in charge had to take agonising decisions.

“The passengers and crew on that flight on 9th August must have been terrified when their plane was taken to a quarantined area, and, apart from the financial cost, the onward travelling plans and connecting flights would have been in disarray.”

Duke-Cohan pleaded guilty in September to three counts of making hoax bomb threats.

The teenager, who was doing an IT course, first created panic in March 2018 when he emailed thousands of schools in the UK warning about an explosive. The National Crime Agency said more than 400 schools were evacuated as a result.

Rebecca Austin, prosecuting, said he had sent emails to more than 1,700 schools in the UK between 16 and 19 March this year. They succeeded in causing “alarm and anxiety”, and one email issued threats and demanded $5,000 be sent to a website.

Police arrested Duke-Cohan days later, but he was able to send another batch of emails to schools in the US and UK while under investigation in April.

The court heard that Marlborough College was targeted on April 13 by what was referred to as the “Apophis Squad” hoax emails. Austin said it was “clear” that Duke-Cohan used the influence of the Columbine attack of 1999 to add “authenticity”.

The email sent to Marlborough College said: “We follow in the footsteps of our two heroes who died in the Columbine high school shooting.”

Duke-Cohan was arrested for a second time and released on pre-charge bail with conditions that he did not use electronic devices. Before long his name was in the frame for a third hoax, regarding a bogus tip-off that hijackers had taken over a United Airlines flight from Heathrow to San Francisco.

Detectives found that Duke-Cohan had made the calls to San Francisco Airport and its police force while he was on pre-charge bail for the two previous offences.

Speaking to an operator, he identified himself as “Mike Sanchez” and said his daughter had called him in a “distressed state” from the plane. A tweet sent after the plane landed included the words “9/11 remake”.

He was arrested for a third time at his home in Watford on 31 August this year.

The teenager was sentenced to one year for the emails sent to schools and two years for the airport security scare. The judge said that, for the purposes of sentencing, he accepted that Duke-Cohan has autism spectrum disorder.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-school-airport-bomb-hoaxes-george-duke-cohan

He was sentenced a few weeks ago, I remember hearing about it but forgot to update this thread.

Weird that someone who was in quite a few of my classes at school is now in prison. It's pathetic that he only got 3 years in prison though

 

[Adijazz1706]

At least he isn't shooting up schools as similar guys in the US do