Health IT, Hospitals

Boston Children’s Hospital hacker sentenced to 10 years in prison

In 2014, Martin Gottesfeld, who identified himself as a member of Anonymous, carried out cyberattacks on Boston Children's Hospital and Wayside Youth & Family Support Network.

Martin Gottesfeld, who carried out cyberattacks on Boston Children’s Hospital and another Massachusetts facility, was sentenced on January 10 to more than 10 years in prison, Reuters reported.

U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton called the crime “contemptible, invidious and loathsome.”

But Gottesfeld said he had no regrets. “I wish I could have done more,” he said, according to Reuters.

In addition to spending 121 months in prison, Gottesfeld must also pay nearly $443,000 in restitution.

In March 2014, Gottesfeld conducted a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack on Wayside Youth & Family Support Network, a Framingham, Massachusetts-based nonprofit offering residential treatment programs, outreach services and counseling to children and families.

The next month, he launched a DDOS attack on Boston Children’s Hospital. The attack disrupted the hospital for at least two weeks, interrupting internet access and harming day-to-day operations and research capabilities, according to the Department of Justice.

Gottesfeld launched the attacks to protest the care of Justina Pelletier, a Connecticut teenager who was taken into state custody in Massachusetts after a dispute over her diagnosis arose between her parents and Boston Children’s. She had previously been diagnosed with mitochondrial disease, but the hospital said her problems were psychiatric, according to AP. Pelletier was a resident at Wayside after her discharge from Boston Children’s.

Gottesfeld disagreed with the hospital’s diagnosis and coordinated the attacks. He launched them on behalf of the hacking group Anonymous, of which he said he’s a member.

He and his wife later fled the country. In February 2016, they made a distress call from a boat off the coast of Cuba. A Disney Cruise Line ship rescued the couple and returned to Miami, where Gottesfeld was arrested.

In August 2018, a federal jury convicted him of one count of conspiracy to damage protected computers and one count of damaging protected computers.

Photo: ValeryBrozhinsky, Getty Images

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