A teenage hacker who knocked out Commonwealth Bank of Australia's online services as part of a cyber-campaign against a host of websites has avoided conviction.
The 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty to four counts of unauthorised impairment of computer systems related to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
The hit on CBA took place in February, says the bank, and left some overseas customers unable to access services for a few hours. The attack "had the potential to cause serious disruption to our services", says the bank, although customer money and information was not put at risk.
The unnamed culprit also briefly knocked out the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network and his school's IT systems for "fun" because he was "bored".
According to the Adelaide Advertiser, despite pleading guilty, the boy avoided conviction and the maximum three years in youth detention. Instead, he has been ordered into mediation with his family and victims.