WASHINGTON -- Federal Bureau of Investigation agents investigating
last month's Web-site attacks said they don't think a 17-year-old New
Hampshire youth whose name surfaced as a suspect is responsible for the
incidents.
The young man, who goes by the online handle "Coolio," became a
suspect last month after someone using that moniker claimed credit for
several Web attacks. Los Angeles police questioned him recently in
connection with attacks on an antidrug site that officers there run, a Los
Angeles Police Department spokesman said. The youth acknowledged
hacking into that site and at least 100 others, the spokesman said.
Local prosecutors are still considering charging him with computer crimes
unrelated to last month's attacks on major commercial Web sites such as
those operated by eBay and Yahoo according to the spokesman.
The youth's name couldn't be learned.
Investigators carried out a search warrant on the youth's home last month
and confiscated several computers that were examined by the FBI.
Federal investigators believe that other hackers may have used the name
Coolio.
As for who is responsible for the denial-of-service attacks, officials said
that they have "promising leads" and that prospects are improving for
arrests in the case. The leading theory remains that the initial outages
beginning Feb. 7 were coordinated by an individual or a group and were
followed by copycat incidents.
One federal law-enforcement official said the FBI fieldwork was "focused
in the Atlanta and Boston field offices." Gail Marcinkiewicz, spokeswoman
for the Boston FBI field office, wouldn't confirm that, saying only that the
division had made no arrests in the case.
