Miami-Dade Teen Who DDoS’d Schools During Virtual Class Got Probation, Not Prison
A 16-year-old junior at South Miami Senior High admitted to eight distributed-denial-of-service attacks that knocked Miami-Dade’s first week of pandemic virtual school offline. Police Chief Edwin Lopez said the district would not rest until everyone involved was caught. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho called it « disheartening that one of our own students has admitted to intentionally causing this kind of disruption. » The teen was charged with using a computer in an attempt to defraud, a third-degree felony that can carry five years if a prosecutor moves the case to adult court, and misdemeanor interference with an educational institution. His name was withheld because he was a minor.
The district had staked more than 270,000 students on a $15.3 million no-bid K12 « My School Online » platform Carvalho had not even fully signed. CFO Ron Steiger told the board the system was failing. Teachers could not log in. Parents flooded the board. Carvalho said additional traffic appeared to originate from Russia, Ukraine, China, and Iraq — while noting a rented DDoS tool does not prove a foreign government. Detectives worked with the FBI, Secret Service, and FDLE. Officials said the servers were not breached and no student data was taken. NYU’s Justin Cappos pointed at outdated software and capacity the district had already been struggling with before any teenager pressed a button.
After a 13-hour board meeting and some 400 speakers, Miami-Dade cancelled the K12 contract in the early hours of September 10, 2020. Grades 6–12 went back to Zoom and Teams. In March 2021 a juvenile-court judge sentenced the then-17-year-old to one year of probation and 30 hours of community service. Prosecutors never charged him as an adult. K12 now operates as Stride, Inc.
Related from The AEGIS Alliance: the Key West 8-year-old, later cybercrime reporting, and U.S. News.
