Anonymous hacker charged for DDoS attacks on Boston Hospital

Following his arrest in February, Martin Gottesfeld was charged Wednesday in connection with the 2014 DDoS attacks against Boston Children”s Hospital and a mental care facility in Massachusetts.

In 2014, the 32-year old Massachusetts resident, together with the hacktivist group Anonymous, launched cyberattacks on healthcare facilities to protest their treatment of certain patients, including 15-year-old Justina Pelletier, according to the Huffington Post.

Gottesefeld, a cyber defense professional, said the medical staff believed the girl had been physically abused by her parents and wanted to take her away from them. This proved a mistake due to a misdiagnosis. Deprived of her medication, this only made her condition worse. According to his statement, Justina was abused in the hospital for 11 months, humiliated and forced to do things she was physically incapable of. Gottesefeld”s actions were only aimed at the hospital to cause financial and reputational harm, and not at the patients or their records.

“The answer is simpler than you might think: The defense of an innocent, learning disabled, 15-year-old girl. In the criminal complaint, she”s called “Patient A,” but to me, she has a name, Justina Pelletier,” Gottesefeld wrote. “They made misleading statements on an affidavit, went to court, and had Justina”s parents stripped of custody. I had heard many, too many, such horror stories of institutionalized children who were killed or took their own lives in the so-called “troubled teen industry”.”

The man was arrested in Miami, after being brought back to the country by a Disney cruise ship after experiencing problems with his sailboat in Cuba. The case is pursued by the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz responsible for the prosecution of internet activist Aaron Swartz.