Pupil, 16, admits launching cyber attacks on sites including Seaworld and the police

A 16-YEAR-OLD schoolboy has admitted launching cyber attacks on websites around the world.

The teen targeted Seaworld in Florida, Devon and Cornwall Police during his online hacking spree.

He pleaded guilty to launching attacks on sites around Africa, Asia, Europe and North America, which led to a denial of service.

The youth admitted three charges of doing an act to hinder access to a programme or data held in a computer.

His charges relate to periods from October 2014 to January 2015 and fall under the Computer Misuse Act.

The boy, who was 15 at the time, denied two further charges of sending bomb hoaxes to American Airlines and Delta airlines.

At Plymouth Youth Court the fair-haired boy, dressed in a grey suit and wearing a tie, sat next to his mum as the trial began.

District Judge Diane Baker told the court the teen, from Plymouth, had entered three guilty pleas to three charges.

She said he has denied the two bomb hoax charges he is on trial for.

The judge said the boy was “a very intelligent young man” and said he could follow the case properly and “far better than a lot of people in this courtroom”.

He is accused of sending both airlines messages on social media referring to a “tick, tick, ticking” sound on their planes.

Both messages also read: “Sorry gentlemen, the clock is ticking” and were immediately passed to the FBI and White House before being handed to UK authorities.

Police searches led officers to the teen’s home in Plymouth and he was arrested and charged with the five offences.

Prosecuting, Ben Sample said: “This case concerns two tweets that were sent to American Airlines.

“The first was sent to American Airlines twitter that was received by them at 6.36pm on 13 February (2015) their time.

“The tweet read ‘One of those lovely Boeing planes has a nice tick, tick ticking in it. Sorry gentlemen. The clock is ticking.

“The White House twitter account was also tagged. It was brought to the attention of senior management and the FBI was also notified.

“Assessments were made and it was decided no further action was taken and the matter was passed to the UK authorities.”

Four minutes later the same tweet was sent to Delta Airlines twitter account.

It was also deemed an unspecific threat and was sent to the UK authorities.

Both tweets came from a twitter account titled Smash Bros @smashingbros.

Sample added: “During the process of planning some care was taken by those involved to hide their tweets.

“The prosecution ask why was it important for the ID to be hidden if someone other than (the defendant) was involved.

“Any suggestion that someone other than (him) is farcical and we are sure he was involved in sending those tweets.”

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