DDoS attack against Blizzard lands Romanian man in US federal prison

A Romanian man has been sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to launching a DDoS attack on Blizzard's World of Warcraft servers.

Calin Mateias, 38, from Bucharest was extradited to the US last year to face federal charges over the 2010 cyber attack.

Mateias' attack was "motivated by a juvenile desire to win the game, and for others to lose it" after becoming involved in a dispute with other players.

"Angered by a player he regularly competed against, the defendant determined to defeat his WoW opponents by interrupting the game's server so they could not access the game," according to a defence sentencing memorandum.

Having pleaded guilty in February, Mateias has since paid $30,000 in restitution to Blizzard; his sentence was handed down earlier this week by US District Judge Otis D. Wright II.

Prosecutors recommend a ten-month prison sentence while the defence unsuccessfully argued that Mateias -- who has been in a federal lock-up since November 20 -- should be released immediately so he may return to Romania.

These are not the first federal charges faced by Mateias -- who formerly used the alias of Dr Mengle, the infamous Nazi doctor who conducted experiment on war prisoners -- after he allegedly played a role in a failed attempt to illegally acquire $10 million worth of computer equipment from Califorina-based computer vendor Ingram Micro. The charges were eventually dropped however.