The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has today confirmed six youths from Brisbane, Sydney and Perth, have been issued cautions over alleged cybercrime-related activities over the past week.
In a statement issued earlier today, the AFP confirmed six inividuals – all youths- had over the past week been issued cautions in relation to what it calls “suspicious online activity.”
The actions did not lead to any arrests, and were instead undertaken as part of a deterrence measure by the AFP in the hopes of discouraging the individuals from committing any further offences. Instead, the AFP issued the youths and their parents or guardians with a copy of the legislation surrounding cyber offences, and educated them on the illegality or potential illegality of their actions.
“These activities are just part of the ongoing commitment by law enforcement to deter cyber criminals,” AFP National Manager of High Tech Crime Operations, Neil Gaughan, said in a statement today.
“In this case, the AFP has engaged with these young people to educate them on the risks of becoming involved in this type of behaviour before they find themselves committing serious offences.”
While details of what actions the the youths had performed were not released, the AFP did make a point of mentioning that “activities such as hacking, creating or propagating malicious viruses or participating in DDOS attacks are not harmless fun.”
If convicted of cyber-crimes, penalties can range from between 2 and 10 years imprisonment.
In separate and unrelated matters, a Cowra man – who went by the online name of ‘Evil’ – that made headlines last year for allegedly hacking into computer systems maintained by Platform, a former wholesale customer of the National Broadband Network (NBN) and obtaining data, has been sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.
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