The teen hacker was found guilty of targeting the celebrity boxing fight.
In 2018 social media influencers Logan Paul and KSI fought a ‘white collar’ boxing bout infront of a sold out Manchester Arena in England. The bout was broadcast live on YouTube, where it did a reported 1.3 million pay-per-view buys.
That fight kickstarted a trend in celebrity fighting, which now rivals mainstream combat sports in popularity (and certainly web traffic). After that original bout, which ended in a draw, Paul and KSI rematched in 2019 in a fight broadcast on DAZN. KSI won that bout by split decision. On the undercard Jake Paul won his pro debut and we all know what’s happened since.
This week a court in Belfast handed down a sentence to a teenager who almost spared us from this celebrity boxing craze. The BBC reports that Josh Maunder, 19, was found guilty of creating a virus that targeted the server that was hosting the original KSI vs. Paul fight.
Maunder’s virus targeted websites via a method known as “distributed denial of service”, which essentially overloads websites with requests until they crash.
Maunder was sentenced to 20 months, suspended for three years.
The judge in his case claimed that Maunder’s cyber attacks were “malicious” and “unauthorised” and were designed to garner “online fame and kudos” from the hacker community, as well as gamers and YouTubers.
Maunders’ attacks did not solely target KSI vs. Paul. They also resulted in a substantial loss to a financial company. Numerous police public information sites and human rights groups also reported being affected by the attacks.
Detective Sergeant McCarragher, of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, investigated Maunders and said that the teen, who was 15 at the time of the attacks, “was in possession of malicious software and managed an online community of peers engaged in prolific computer misuse offences which was also successfully impacted by the investigation.”
“This should send a clear message to those involved in this type of crime that they will be vigorously pursued and brought before the courts to face the consequences of such activity,” added McCarragher.
Did Logan Paul sign with the UFC?
Sorta. Logan Paul recently announced that he had signed a deal, along with his business partner KSI, to make his Prime sports drink the official sports drink of the UFC. So expect to see his logo, and face, at plenty of UFC events in the future.
About the author: Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. (full bio)